Do You Hear What I Hear?

Text, graphics, animation, colors, videos, pictures, word art. There are many elements on the internet to visually catch our attention; the list goes on and on. So with our eyes permanently focused on increasingly better visuals, what role could pure audio play on the internet?

Audio went out when video came in. In the 1950s, old radios were replaced with new television sets. People no longer relied solely on their ears for news and entertainment (and with the coming of MTV, music, but that's a whole different issue) when they could actually see what was happening right in their own living rooms. But is it possible that 50 years later, the internet is bringing back the audio our grandparents and great grandparents listened to when they were young?

Not exactly. For one, audio is far improved from the days of FDR's fireside chats. New recording equipment, such as the Edirol machine popular amongst journalists, records clear sounds, and digital technology allows for an infinite amount of copies to be produced that sound just like the original. Secondly, as I said before, we are a visual society. If you expect to keep a web surfer on your site, you can't expect them to listen to minutes and minutes of pure audio. That's where photography comes in. Another [seemingly] ancient art form that the internet is bringing back. Combining audio and photography into a short slideshow can be an effective method of expressing emotion and conflict, and it's just one more way for us journalists to get our message out there into cyberspace.