It Is Finished

***Note: the following is an assignment for a course.

Those may be the words of Jesus Christ himself, but will they be the final words that radio, television, and print in the near future?

Here's what I think...

Radio.

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A great invention in that it was created to communicate beyond distance with numerous people tuning in at the same time. I don't think radio will completely cease as we know it since there will be many traditionalists who love to hold on to things in its original forms. Sure, radio has taken different forms as we know it but nonetheless, it's still radio. Just... radio on demand, radio on the computer, radio where we get to pick and choose what we listen to. Sometimes, we just like to be our own DJ, but there are other times where we let others do the work for us. MySpace, Last.FM, and even YouTube are my favourite sites to discover new music on my own agenda.

Television.

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Something that started out with mere black and white pictures and evolved to what we now see in colour. Television was something that was a luxurious form of entertainment and now something that is accessible to many. I believe traditional television is definitely nearing its end and cable companies, advertisers, and the production companies will need to find alternative means to make money. MySoju, YouTube, and NinjaVideo are my favourite sites to watch the shows I can't always find on television when I need to and no longer will I need to record things.

Print.

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The idea of the end of print completely baffles me because I cannot imagine myself enjoying a simple novel without the physical pages to turn, "lying in a hammock, or a bathtub" - there's no way we can do that with a computer. Systems will always have a risk of crashing but books will never crash. However, I do believe that newspapers and magazines have huge competition with the Internet, especially with bloggers. I think printed books will always be around but in terms of news and real-time information, print's time may almost be up.

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Friend or Foe?