My name is Brett Harmon, I am an eight year veteran of the radio industry working as a sports journalist in Phoenix, Arizona. I took an interest into the emerging digital media back in 2007 when I realized that social media, Twitter predominantly, was going to be the future of spreading breaking news and information as fast as possible. I was among the driving forces to take our station and push them into the digital age. Right now I think that we are on the verge of the new digital medias becoming the primary and sole source of news and information in our society.
Being from a sports media background I look to many of those individuals and organizations for those that have influenced me. Websites like Deadspin and Bleacher Report have become major news brokers because they were among the first to embrace the new medias to get out their message. Although major companies like ESPN adopted the new medias later were able to transition to using the internet and social media to their advantage. They now use the new medias to push out the information as quickly as possible and then use their traditional resources to compile all of the information.
In taking this class I hope to discern what the next steps are going to be as the media evolves. I just want to make sure I understand where it has been so I can better know where it is going to go.
Cool, another radio person! I served as the Social Media Coordinator for our station, and utilized our Facebook page and Twitter page constantly. It’s nice to be able to announce a local event or important information concerning a fire warning on air and then be able to say, “for more information, visit our Facebook page…” I too am excited to see the ways that media will evolve.
Hello!
As I was a print journalist for many years, I’ve been following the demise of newspaper. While many newspaper corporations are trying to “re-invent” themselves via online versions, I’m not sure how successful they’re going to be in the face of targeted blogs and other social media.
I haven’t kept up as well withe radio end of the media landscape. How are music stations faring, for example, against competition from Amazon radio, Spotify and Pandora?
Brett, are you planning to stay in sportscasting? Or not sure?
I’d second Natalie’s question… I remember watching as youtube and podcasts started to inch their way into television and radio markets. I’m curious – did you have push-back from some of the more senior staff who were holding tight to traditional media formats? I ask, because I saw and experienced it in TV and I’m sure print journalists also saw this tug-of-war.
There was some push back for the most part. Some of the more “old school” reporters have a tendency to look down on the bloggers and independent reporters from the new medias. However there has been some lightening on that stigma. As more and more very good and respected reporters started to move to the new medias only the most staunch of the old schoolers held out.
When it came to the social medias, I once had a host tell me, “we survived for however long without Twitter we don’t NEED it now.” And that statement bothered me to no end as there was not a piece of breaking news that we had not given him in about a year that did not come from Twitter first.
Hey Brett! I also worked in the sports industry for a little bit. I worked for the Miami Heat T.V./SunSports during the 2012 season. A lot of times we had to export stuff to the web as highlights and recaps or community related events. It was also important to enable the sharing feature so people can share it on their Facebook or Twitter accounts.
I also realized that “that social media, Twitter predominantly, was going to be the future of spreading breaking news and information as fast as possible”, but do you think Radio will die? Because i can’t think of any other medium that you can use while multi tasking. In other words, in the Internet and social media are great but you have to be fully engaged, but with radio you can just listen to it while doing other stuff at the same time.