Speaks and shows the Network

More than two years ago, the executive director of the largest American news agency, UPI, James Adams, gave a speech at the New York/Publishing98 conference that amazed those present. He stated that “we are all witnessing the beginning of the end of traditional media, not in their “paper” or electronic incarnation, but as a certain way of presenting information” and that “most of the leaders of traditional mass media still do not understand the revolutionary role of the Internet in this process.” .

Today it is obvious that few of the major media manage to maintain their leading positions by moving to the Internet; at best, most of them work as information providers for large portals like Yahoo!, Excite or MSNBC. Rare exceptions only confirm the rule: media outlets that are quite successful on the Internet (for example, the Los Angeles Times or The Washington Post) are forced to constantly look for new forms of presenting material. Simply “gluing” paper pages to a website on the Internet does not work, since this information delivery channel was originally conceived as dual, two-way, interactive. This means that, in the words of Adams, the “arrogance” with which traditional media has historically treated consumers is impossible on the Internet; Here the laws are dictated by the consumer. Interactivity allows him not only to independently generate a news flow, but also to actually order this or that information. And at the same time, do not pay anything for these services (unless, of course, you count the time spent reading and the money that goes to the Internet provider for access to the Network as payment).

I would venture to suggest that it is radio stations that have the greatest chance of almost painlessly “embedding” themselves into Internet broadcasting (unlike other traditional media and even TV). Modern radio has long been working with its listeners in a virtually interactive mode; they learned to maintain a constant broadcast mode, filling the pauses between information blocks with musical inserts - “buffers”. Their employees do not need to radically change their work mode to organize network broadcasting, and the investment for creating the site itself is not too large. The only thing the listener will need, in addition to the already familiar browser, is a program for listening to streaming audio (for example, RealPlayer) and files that have also become familiar in the MP3 format (for example, WinAmp) and a good reliable channel (however, at least half of Russian Internet users access the Internet through corporate networks, and this is usually significantly faster than the “home” Internet).

It's surprising that so few radio "content" providers have realized their benefits. Of course, most major radio stations have their own websites, some of them are even old-timers of the Network (such as the radio station "Silver Rain", www.silver.ru). However, more often than not, these sites are more like “business cards”, on which there is an entrance to the audio stream of the station itself transmitted over the Internet or (very rarely) individual pieces of broadcasting recorded and buried in the site’s archive, and an indispensable forum. (An extensive list of station websites can be found at www.fmradio.ru). On virtually no site, your correspondent was able to listen to (or at least read the text transcript of) past programs; listen to several songs from the current chart; Find out exactly what questions will be raised during tomorrow's show and ask the hosts questions in advance.

A rare exception is the website of the radio station "Echo of Moscow" (echo.msk.ru) and its own website of the "echomoscow" daily program about the Internet, Echonet.Ru. The Echo website can (and should) be reproached only for the fact that from a technical point of view it was not solved in the best way. However, at beta.echo. msk.ru is already testing a new, more advanced and faster version prepared by the Memonet company. The Echo website is not just an excellent radio station website, but one of the most successful news and analytical projects on the entire Runet. The gigantic, carefully categorized archive of programs (so far, however, only text) can be used as a kind of reference book; the listener can subscribe to the newsletter by setting any frequency (from instantaneous to daily); ask questions to the interviewees (interviews are “Echo’s specialty”). Finally, you can read the news of the last hour and the latest comments directly on the site. The same thing is present to a slightly smaller extent on the Echoneta website. Echo of Moscow managed to become a portal almost entirely through its own efforts. During. The rest will soon rush to catch up.