New Persuasion

Firsts

Here at McGinn MS&L we find it important to keep track of the first time important things occur in our society.  These changes tell us a lot about things that may be surprising or even overdue, and are a great indication of where we stand.

Some recent firsts that are significantly important are:

Ø      On July 25, 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the world's first successful "test-tube" baby was born in Great Britain.

Ø      For the first time at least since World War II, there were more failed marriages than lasting ones at the 25-year mark: Slightly more than half of the men and women who got married in the late 1970s were separated or divorced -- or widowed -- before they reached their 25th anniversary.

Ø      The 2008 edition of “America’s Best Black Colleges” marks the first time U.S. News & World Report has released a stand-alone ranking of historically black colleges and universities.

Ø      John Edwards appeared in the first MySpace/ MTV candidate forum. The Democratic presidential hopeful was the first in a string of candidate dialogs planned by those two stalwarts of modern culture.

Ø      The number of violent crimes increased by a larger amount than expected last year, extending the first significant rise in murders and robberies in a dozen years.  Robberies surged by 7.2% and murders rose 1.8%.

Ø      The number of people living past 100 in England and Wales reached almost 9,000 last year for the first time ever.  The number of Centenarians had increased ninety-fold since 1911 when there were only 100 total in the country.

What does this all mean?  Well, advances in technology have made things like the "test-tube baby" and the record number of Centenarians possible.  It also is the main factor behind the MySpace/ MTV political influence which signals a huge shift in society and the things that we emphasize as a nation.  Technology is changing everything about our world and we are taking notice.  It's great to see that we are taking advantage of our ability to communicate to mass audiences and political leaders are taking the time to speak to these audiences-- young and old.

The rise in the number of murders and robberies could be because of a larger issue, such as Hurricane Katrina or the terrorist attacks on September 11th.  We are starting to realize that we should stop and enjoy life, and how important is really is to remember that everyone is an individual with their appreciation for the world around them.  This could be the reason for the record number of failed marriages as people begin to explore what they find most important in life.  We are encouraging individuality and uniqueness, as well as embracing positive changes such as the first edition of U.S. News and World Report releasing a ranking specifically for the nations Black Colleges and Universities.

As new firsts emerge and these changes continue to become an integral part of the way we live, it's important to just stop and take in these shifts before years go by and we never even realize they occurred.

TV News and Print News - Destined to Merge?

I've always thought that someday the 3 (4?) major broadcast networks would consolidate their newsgathering operations into one global brand.  I think that because they all do the same thing - and none of them have the resources anymore to do it as well as they'd like. 

Now, I see Mark Cuban is calling for convergence of both print and television.  He argues that some of the print brands (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, etc..) are the most trusted names in news:

Riddle me this Batman: Rupert Murdoch has figured out that Print and TV can be combined to be a vertical news organization and is willing to pay 5 billion dollars to do it. Why has no one else realized the value of combining big news brands and organizations ?

Why isn't a CBS News merging their news department with a NY Times and rebranding itself as the 6pm NY Times News ? Or with Time Magazine News ? Or NBC News and ???

With newsroom cuts a daily occurrence, why wait until you've been bled to death?

Of course, this does bring up the questions of putting the reporting of news in fewer hands, but with the Internet/blogs/podcasts and millions of amateur journalists at the ready, is this really true?  We'll see.

Future of Newspapers?

Juan Antonio Giner over at What's Next: Innovation in Newspapers, shows another way to present the news - as comic strip:

 

El Periodico ran this the same day a comic expo started in Barcelona.