CS 400U Digital Media and New Aural Cultures Fall 2024

  There was a time when music was tied to specific moments and places. Radios played your favourite tracks only when the station decided, and honestly, it was annoying when I couldn't hear my favourite song when I wanted to. However today, music has evolved into something that we can listen to anywhere and everywhere, thanks to digital platforms and streaming services. One statistic proves just how much this transformation has reshaped our lives, I listened to Drake for 96,000 minutes this year alone. It’s mind-blowing to consider how unimaginable this would’ve been just a few decades ago. Back then, accessing even a fraction of that would require stacks of CDs, perfect tuning on the radio, or hours spent rewinding tapes. Now, music follows us everywhere, on commutes, study sessions, workouts, parties or moments of relaxation. The ability to stream anything, anytime, has made music an integral part of our daily lives, reflecting our emotions, boosting productivity, and creating mem...

 Hey guys, for this blog post, I'd like to share my Spotify wrapped for 2021. This year in particular, is significant to me because this was my first-year of university. I have fond memories of isolation and zoom classes:p  I've been looking forward to Spotify wrapped every year because it shows you a lot about your growth through the years. The same way people attribute scents to a certain period, sound/music is no different.  When I reflect on my Spotify Wrapped, I think of my old professors, classes, friends, and mindset at the time. My eighteen year old self couldn't anticipate how much she would change or how her music taste would evolve. Spotify Wrapped evokes nostalgia in me and I'm excited to see my Spotify Wrapped for this year, as it should be coming out in less than a week! I love going back and listening to these old playlists, as it brings up a lot of hard, yet also fond, memories of my life. 

 Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how audiobooks have transformed my relationship with storytelling. For years, I was a die-hard reader, convinced that nothing could compare to the feeling of flipping through the pages of a book. But once I listened to Verity by Colleen Hoover, I was hooked on the power of sound. Audiobooks, especially in a thriller like Verity , don’t just tell a story—they immerse you in it. The narrators’ voices breathe life into the characters, their pacing and intonation adding layers of emotion that sometimes words on a page can’t capture. There’s a moment in Verity when the tension is so thick you can almost feel it vibrating through the speaker. The narrator’s voice shifts from calm to frantic, and it heightens the suspense in a way that’s hard to match with silent reading. This is what I love about audiobooks: they aren’t just a replacement for reading—they’re an entirely different experience rooted in aural culture. In this course, we’ve discussed...

 For this blog post, I thought I would take the time to share a list of my top 10 favourite podcasts. I started listening to podcasts a couple years ago when I was trying to find new ways to calm my ADHD racing mind down before bed. Before podcasts, I tried many things to fall asleep, including listening to music, counting sheep, picturing a blank page and pretty much anything the internet tells you to try. One day, I was going through my apps to figure out which ones I can delete to get more space on my phone. That's when I came across the Podcasts app. Since discovering podcasts, not only do I use them to fall asleep every night, but I also listen to them every time I'm driving for more then 20 minutes.  Anyways, here is my list of podcast recommendations (in no particular order): 1. "Call Her Daddy" 2. "The Cancelled Podcast" 3. "The Viall Files" 4. "BFFs" 5. "Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast" 6. "Hot Mess with Alix Earl...

Kuffert explains that early radio was celebrated for its potential to unify people across distances and social divides. The idea was that radio could provide something for everyone, connecting communities, and bringing new voices to the public sphere. However, this ideal didn’t last. As radio networks and stations became money-hungry, the focus shifted from serving a broad audience to catering to content that could attract the largest, most commercially viable audiences. In other words, radio stations "sold out" because stations and networks wanted to maximize advertising revenue. Today, we see a similar pattern: YouTubers who were once dedicated to creating meaningful and engaging content will now sell their souls to make some money. A real-life example of "selling out" is when YouTubers who swore they would never support gambling end up gaining a lot of followers. In return, they receive a ridiculous amount of money to promote gambling, and because this is their j...

 As I mentioned in my presentation, podcasting and YouTube draw many parallels in their trajectory and formalization. One of my favourite YouTubers, Emma Chamberlian has been on YouTube since 2016 but over the years has taken many breaks from posting and now posts much less frequently. Emma was one of the first YouTubers to start a podcast and when she started she was posting on both platforms but has eventually shifted to strictly podcasting for the most part. Her move from YouTube to podcasting brought her many already committed fans like myself to the new platform which also introduced us to find other podcasts similar to hers but from smaller influencers. Since she already had an established brand of being considered one of the most authentic YouTubers sharing many aspects of her life, podcasting only felt like an extension of herself and made sense for her branding. Since she already had a team of people her podcast had a sense of professionalism and set a new standard for pod...