Valya’s Blog

I was watching CNN tonight while rolling the pedals of a cardio-machine at the gym and listening to an Economist blog on my iPod. Now, I’m not mentioning all of this to make myself sound smarter. In fact, I am not nearly as immersed in current events and the most influential newspapers and media outlets as I wish to be or should be. But I am an NPR junkie, I keep the New York Times as my home page at work and at home, and I do usually watch CNN while working out, having breakfast and first thing when I get home from work.

Something very obvious came to mind tonight, though. There was a teaser on CNN about the next You Tube debate with presidential hopefuls that the Cable News Network is hosting. Then I realized, here’s a very plain example of new media integration with not-so-new media: CNN utilizing the new phenomenon that is You Tube to grab young people’s attention (and not really just young people… You Tube-ers are from all ages and walks of life). Then CNN goes into the Podcast world by putting some of its own shows into a new format and uploading it on people’s portable, personal iPod devices. It’s an interesting development that CNN has pulled You Tube, an Internet phenomenon, into the more old-fashioned medium that is TV and then that same channel has put TV news, a relatively old-fashioned outlet, into a very recent vehicle – the Podcast, a hybrid that came from a high-tech + Internet merger.