Oprah's Book Club

“I am going to try to develop a show for books and authors”-Oprah Winfrey. As Oprah Winfrey said, she tried to select a new novel to read, to discuss and sometimes to invite its author, and presented it in a proper way to the mass audience through her talk show. That’s why she started her own “book Oprah’s Book Club” which includes 60 books or novels in 1992. Because of Oprah’s Book Club, many obscure books’ titles have become bestsellers, and many of her picks sold over 1 million copies. These aforementioned changes that were taken place known as “Oprah Effect”. Some of the numerous books that she promoted are: Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, Night by Elie Wiesel and A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. In addition to the recommendation of these books to the viewers, Oprah held interviews with the authors of these recommended books to go over their content, to learn more about the authors and their experiences and to discuss some mysterious issues within these books.

eReaders

eReaders are devices that are used for reading and downloading any electronic media file not only eBooks, but also eNewspapers, eMagazines, eGames and other digital, online files. Nowadays with the increasing number of eBook readers, more detailed features for eReaders emerged. There are different genres of eReaders in the market such as basic eReaders, eReaders with a WiFi feature and eReaders with WiFi and 3G features. First of all, the device that is attached via USD cable to a desktop PC with internet connection to download eBooks, eMagazines, eNewspapers or Audio Books is called basic eReader. On the other hand, eReaders with a WiFi feature are made with “inbuilt WiFi feature” which simplifies the process of accessing the internet in order to download any electronic media file. The last developmental category is the eReader with WiFi & 3G features which works globally to support the frequent traveler. In addition, it does not require limited wireless network in the place where it is used since it has an access to the internet around the world. Examples of eReaders with WiFi & 3G features may include Kindle 3D and Kindle Dx.

'The Medium is the Message'

“Medium is the Message” one of the fundamental theories that was developed by Marshall McLuhan. Although people tend to focus on the obvious, McLuhan tells us to look beyond the obvious and to seek the non-obvious changes that affect our societies in a direct way. McLuhan always considers that the medium is like the fertile soil into which a seed is planted. Thus, audience should focus on the medium that disseminates the message and from which all the changes are emerged. He writes “it is too typical that “the content” of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium itself” When people are focus on the medium, they will notice the changes in their societies and cultures. Furthermore, public will be able to control the detrimental effects before they become obvious to everyone, and before they spread among the successive generations.       

Bollywood vs. Hollywood

            Although Bollywood was born in 1899 in India and Hollywood was emerged 11 years later in U.S., many audiences among the world see that Hollywood is the best because it is connected in many ways to the modern technologies that are employed within its editing, sound, cinematography and other categories. In addition to their history, Bollywood actors should not only know how to act, they also should know how to sing and dance. One example of these multi talented actors would be ShahRukh Khan who is the most famous Bollywood star on the earth. These talents maybe the fundamental reason beyond the huge number of the Bollywoods’ viewers which is estimated about 3.6 billion against 2.6 billion for the Hollywoods’ viewers.

To sum up, no one can judge which is better “Hollywood or Bollywood” since each one has its specific segment of audiences that are biased to it, and see it the best.    

Exponential Growth of the Social Media

Because everything in the world of social media has been developing in a very rapidly pace, and the number of the aggregated audiences who are described as large and diverse media audiences is increasing as well, the exponential growth matrix emerged. Nowadays, it is estimated that 96% of the audience have joined a social network such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Facebook added over 200 million users in less than one year. Furthermore, several mass media vehicles took many years to be adopted and to reach millions of users; for instance, Radio(38 years), TV(13 years), Internet(4 years) and iPod(3 years).