By Shireen Korkzan
<[email protected]>

Not long ago, The Indianapolis Star issued two newspapers a day. Now it’s only one. In the near future? Probably none. Instead, The Indy Star might be exclusively online, like many other newspapers across the country have become recently.

Printed news is not the only medium to switch to the Internet. Hulu.com, a Web site providing free access to a variety of movies, shows, and more, is reeling in more television and movie viewers. Now more people than ever are watching their favorite television shows and movies online instead of on the tube itself. This adds convenience to people who missed watching their show at its scheduled time and is free unlike Digital Video Recorders (DVR) such as TiVo. Plus, the Internet is virtually commercial free.

Music has evolved over the past couple of centuries, from inventor Thomas Edison’s phonograph to the boom box to Apple’s iPhone. Brian Bauman, a Web Master in Tech Hounds and junior, said all forms of media and entertainment are evolving tremendously with modern technology development. Bauman, who wants to be a professional Web site designer after college, has been a Web Master since last year and was a computer programmer his freshman year. He gets paid for making Web sites and is currently on a contract for the Journey of Hope Church in Zionsville.

“Cable stops being an actual entertainment medium and people will start going more towards the Internet,” Bauman said. “The Internet is becoming more industrialized. Like the radio, the Internet is not the free frontier it used to be, but it’s still a slow process. Nothing will disappear; content will change for different types of audiences.”

Bauman referenced the radio because of its role in entertainment throughout history. Between 1933 and 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt’s used the radio to distribute his “fireside chats” to the American people. Soap operas were common via radio during the 1950’s, but over time people began switching to television for their soap opera entertainment. Television has since been the premiere medium for viewer entertainment and radio is mostly used for listening to music and the occasional sporting event. The Internet is now taking television’s place for viewer entertainment as well as print journalism; however, Bauman said, there will still be a role for television and print media. They will have to adapt like radio has over the years. Alex Case, supervisor of the Best Buy on North Meridian Street, said television sales remain high despite having less people coming in and buying cable and satellite. Blu-Ray and High Definition television have helped, and DVD sales are soaring.

“The DVD industry is trying to adapt to the computer industry,” Case said. “That’s why you see more computers with DVD players attached. Some already have Blu-Ray players installed.”

Case also said there’s more convergence with entertainment products. The Apple iPhone is one such example by including a portable phone, music player and the Internet into one device. Television sales also haven’t decreased because more video and PC game players are hooking computers to their television sets to get the “bigger screen” feel, which cannot be found on a computer screen. But instead of speaking with an employee to receive inquiry on an entertainment product, users now study the inquired product online before even coming into the store. Many people, according to Case, only come in to directly buy the product and only have a couple of questions before officially buying the product. There are also product reviews online like Expotv.com, which also help users in deciding what to buy. YouTube channels are also common when researching entertainment products. A lot of these reviews are professionals because there is an entire industry of reviewing products.

However, Bauman said, the Internet will probably still win for a while because “the new generation is expecting more, faster.”