Who needs a cameraman to do local news anymore?
*Evidence that this is a new technology adoption can be seen in her choice to use a smartphone rather than the GoPro resting on the sidewalk.
Hat tip: Chris Phelan
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Declining Demand for Labor
*Evidence that this is a new technology adoption can be seen in her choice to use a smartphone rather than the GoPro resting on the sidewalk.
Hat tip: Chris Phelan
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The new technology today is becoming more advanced. This selfie pole is just one more tech-savvy object that we can add to the many other things people want or will own in the near future. I personally think it is great idea for vacationers to take with them on their trips but I don’t believe this selfie pole will alleviate the camera man.
ReplyDeleteI believe the selfie poles are for amateur photographers. What is more interesting is that three will be less interaction in asking tourists to take a photo of you & your family.
I can’t decide if that is good or bad.
A little bio of the selfie sticks is they first thrived in Asia, where so many tech trends seem to originate, for better or worse. Tourists wielding giant poles with their cellphones attached at the end stood, smiling from their faraway phone cameras. Incidentally, so many selfie sticks popped up in South Korea that officials there "cracked down" on unregulated selfie sticks, and anyone spotted selling these monopods could face three years in prison. Well what techy product will be invented next?
Work Cited:
Hu, E. (2015) The Unstoppable Selfie Stick Trend has Invaded American Shores. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2015/01/08/375617481/the-unstoppable-selfie-stick-trend-is-now-on-american-shores
Warzel, C. (2015) Why we Love and Loathe the Selfie Stick. Retrieved from: http://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/why-we-love-and-loathe-the-selfie-stick#.utjprM5KP
Is every choice is an example of opportunity cost?
ReplyDelete“The opportunity cost of an alternative is what you give up to pursue it” (Froeb, 2014). Throughout life from a young age to today we have chosen between one option and another. The one that got away is the opportunity cost of the one we chose. However is technology decreasing our cost of opportunity? Looking at the selfie pole that the reporter can use to receive more air time without the cost of a camera person, a $25.00 investment might launch a reporter’s career to national television. The reporter can set themselves up, scoop a story, have footage for six o’clock, and did not have to stand around waiting for a camera person to make it happen.
Technology can lower our cost of opportunity, as a child we may have had a VCR to record television we might miss because of family events. But did we always have a blank tape, or did we have to sacrifice another recording by taping over a show that maybe we did not see yet so we could record the game? Today DVRs eliminate the need for tapes, again lowering the cost of opportunity.
Froeb, L. M., McCann, B. T., Shor, M., & Ward, M. R. (2014). Managerial Economics; A problem solving approach (3rd edition). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning .
What is the hidden cost?
ReplyDeleteBy using a "selfie stick" to film news reports, is the media outlet trading quality for up-front cost? What is the expertise of the filming crew worth? Will the final product be of lower quality and result in a loss of viewers?
It could be argued that the elimination of the film crew creates efficiency on the front end of the process and lowers the cost of opportunity at that point in time. However, the media outlet may lose efficiency later on as a result of poor quality. The cost of opportunity then increases as customers are lost. This loss of revenue can only be estimated at the beginning of the process when the decision is being made whether to move to the use of "selfie sticks" vs. employing a camera crew, so it is difficult to accurately measure exactly what that cost will be. However, this cost needs to be weighed carefully... if it is ignored as a hidden cost, then the consequences could be dire.
Froeb, L. M., McCann, B. T., Shor, M., & Ward, M. R. (2014). Managerial Economics; A problem solving approach (3rd edition). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning .
Is this really a declining demand for labor or an opportunity cost savings due to resource scarcity? Let’s face it almost everyone has a camera or a smart phone these days so how many camera operators pursue a career in multimedia production? “The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, www.bls.gov) reports that camera operators held a projected 26,800 jobs in 2010. This figure includes those working at television stations, motion picture companies and independent production companies, as well as many who were self-employed. Jobs for camera operators were expected to grow by 2% from 2010-2020 in the television, video and motion picture industries, but a variety of factors will mitigate growth”. Adopting new technology may be the blame for the declining demand for labor in being a Camera Operator but the opportunity cost of choosing another alternative might earn a profit in becoming a Video Journalist. Video journalism coincides with changes in video technology and declining costs. Some of the most highly publicized news stories have come in from freelance videographers or just ordinary citizens who are in the wrong place at the right time.
ReplyDeleteBureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2014-15 Edition, Film and Video Editors and Camera Operators, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/film-and-video-editors-and-camera-operators.htm (visited January 28, 2015).
This Is the reality that's trending in the market today almost everyone has a camera and a video recorder on their smart phone. With technology today and the high demand for smartphones and iPads it is so easy to shoot your own video and post on any social media network. Camera operators are fading out as everyone begins to get their own smartphones. I can see an economic profit in becoming a video journalist versus a camera man that has a decline in the job market. Doing your own video will never compares to a high definition video. If you want to make your videos today smartphones have a rise in video and picture quality, they make perfect tools to be creative in video blogging. I can understand how using a smartphone to create your own blogs and camera footage can be more cost effective than hiring a whole crew to get the work you can produce yourself at a way more economical cost. When your starting out you want to take in consideration all cost to your business including all implicit costs considering all the investments to make capital gain or profit.
DeleteThe selfie stick was a brilliant idea. I am not interested in owning one, but there is an entire generation that needs to record every moment of their apparently interesting lives! I first saw the selfie-stick a couple of years back on a trip to Disney, they were popping up all over the place. Young people were walking around recording or snapshotting their entire trip. I thought to myself “how ridiculous is this”? Then a few months later I was in line buying 3 for my kids and I have since replaced multiple broken selfie sticks. I have learned that these devices are not only making millions for manufacturers, but they are making some young people very wealthy. There is a slew of children and young adults that are making fortunes with their own YouTube channels, my kids are hooked on these clips like I was hooked on Happy Days or Seinfeld. I have to monitor their viewing and internet habits so I am fed a steady diet of these ridiculous clips. They are as simple and ridiculous as you would think, many are made solely with a phone on a selfie stick!
DeleteSo there is one entertainer who is actually very funny, she is making tons of money posting these videos on YouTube. Her name is Colleen and her alter ego is Miranda Sings, she is worth a couple of million bucks. Sometimes the videos that she posts are of her just walking around with a selfie stick singing songs or dancing. We actually did a meet and greet with her at Barnes and Noble. I want to say that she wrote a book, but it is more like a publisher bound hand written notes around selfies! I took the kids to see her live show in NYC. There was a video screen behind her, basically running selfies all night long. Every kid in the audience had a selfie stick which was part of the whole experience for them; they wanted a selfie with Miranda in the background.
We could go back and forth on the cost benefits or the decrease in quality that these devices pose on the media, but it doesn’t really matter. The point is that there is a whole generation of kids not really watching traditional news, they don’t really watch tradition programs or television for that matter. They watch, on their phones, other young people recording programs with basic equipment. This is where an entire generation gets their entertainment and news from; this is where we see the declining demand for labor. By the way I recently read that Disney has banned selfie sticks from all parks, I guess you can say one man’s dream is another man’s liability!
JG
The selfie stick, people either love it or hate it. But I had a hard time finding an article that spoke about it’s use for anything other then selfies, as shown in the picture of the reporter above. While I understand both sides of the coin (love and hate), there are also useful purposes for the item that many are missing out on.
ReplyDeleteIn economic terms, it could be very useful for not only reporters or those who want to be, but for startups that don’t have the cash for a camera crew. I also understand the view that quality may be lost without the use of a camera crew. However, this could also create a new market for reporters who are trained to be both reporter and camera crew. Who doesn’t want a well-rounded employee who can do it all? Maybe the next wave of big reporters will do it all on their own instead of waiting for a camera crew to set up. Most times if you are not ready to go you might miss the juiciest part of the story anyways…
When output and pricing decisions are made, businesses must determine how much of each input to demand. Business may can chose to demand different kind of inputs. The two most common one are labor and capital. Demand and supply of labor are usually determined in the labor market. The two participants in the labor market are the workers and the business. Workers supply labor to the business in exchanges for wages and salary. Business demands labor from workers in exchanges for wages and salaries.
ReplyDeleteThe market demand can be obtained by summing the qualities demanded by all consumers at each potential price. Some of the determinants of demand are:
Income
Taste and preference
Number of potential consumer
Prices of related goods and services
Consumer’s expectations about future prices and incomes that can be checked.
The labor market has decline over the years, due to the increased in technology. A theoretical framework that produces two hypotheses which can explain the shift in relative demand as well as the different way in which this shift has manifested itself. Dynamics thus uncovered policies implications on income, labor market and technology policies in Europe and the USA. Modeling the dynamics of technical change and its interactions with the labor market is of great interest.
Reference:
1. Frobe, McCann, Ward and Shor (2014) Managerial Economics – A Problem Solving Approach.
2. Sanders, Mark (2009) Technology and the Decline for Unskilled Labor. E. Elgar Published.
When output and pricing decisions are made, businesses must determine how much of each input to demand. Business may can chose to demand different kind of inputs. The two most common one are labor and capital. Demand and supply of labor are usually determined in the labor market. The two participants in the labor market are the workers and the business. Workers supply labor to the business in exchanges for wages and salary. Business demands labor from workers in exchanges for wages and salaries.
ReplyDeleteThe market demand can be obtained by summing the qualities demanded by all consumers at each potential price. Some of the determinants of demand are:
Income
Taste and preference
Number of potential consumer
Prices of related goods and services
Consumer’s expectations about future prices and incomes that can be checked.
The labor market has decline over the years, due to the increased in technology. A theoretical framework that produces two hypotheses which can explain the shift in relative demand as well as the different way in which this shift has manifested itself. Dynamics thus uncovered policies implications on income, labor market and technology policies in Europe and the USA. Modeling the dynamics of technical change and its interactions with the labor market is of great interest.
Reference:
1. Frobe, McCann, Ward and Shor (2014) Managerial Economics – A Problem Solving Approach.
2. Sanders, Mark (2009) Technology and the Decline for Unskilled Labor. E. Elgar Published.
A picture is really worth a thousand words. Here you can interpret this as many things:
ReplyDelete1. Prospective college student creating a video to go with their application
2. A college student working her own story for the universities news channel (or for a class within the Communications dept.)
3. An everyday person recording their vlog
4. Reporter for the local news
Sticking with option #4…. The young lady in the photo is displaying her opportunity cost savings by the use of her selfie stick. “We define the opportunity cost of one alternative as the forgone opportunity to earn profit from the other” (Froeb, 2014). While this may save her money in the long run as opposed to using a cameraman/team, what are the trade-offs? Loss of quality, the expertise the cameraman could give (ie: too much lighting with the sun), and possibly battery life depending on how many recording takes she went through. The question becomes, how will the audience of these segments react? Will they even notice the difference of using the selfie stick versus a cameraman? If the feedback is negative, I don’t see the need for cameramen to start looking for opportunities elsewhere anytime soon.
Froeb, L.M., McCann, B.T., Ward, M.R. & Shor, M. (2014). Managerial Economics: A Problem Solving Approach. Mason, Ohio: Southwestern Cengage Learning.
While the “selfie stick” may instantly present itself as a way for media companies to reduce labor by having reports become their own camerapeople, like any decision, there are economic costs associated with this move. The first and most obvious is that quality could decrease on both ends. Instead of having a dedicated reporter and dedicated cameraperson, each of whom specialized in their own expertise, the company now relies on somebody who can do “a little bit of both”. However, most media companies likely are finding that their viewers don’t care about this tradeoff, meaning that the companies may have overvalued the price of quality to begin with -- all this time viewers would have been happy to pay the same amount (payment in terms of watching commercials) for the lower quality news product than the higher quality one. Additionally, there may be an opportunit y cost in the fact that the reporter doesn’t have as much time to report, because he/she also has to take time to use the video equipment. In theory, this may mean that the media companies might have to hire additional reporters, which would balance out the missing videoperson.
ReplyDeleteLabor is and has always been the greatest cost to eliminate with technology. People are unreliable, self-centered, and easily distracted. As the chapter teaches us, we must always look for the "hidden costs". The selfie stick may present itself as a good alternative to a human (who needs pay, breaks, benefits, vacations, etc.) However, how steady will the picture be being held by one hand four feet away? How well does the reporter see her background to find the best angles? There are many other factors that a cameraman can focus on while the reporter concentrates on their words. I have a notion that if any reporter did ten segments, twice each (one with a selfie stick and the other with a cameraman), there would be no comparison regarding the quality.
ReplyDeleteYou know technology is getting crazy when the selfie-stick is impacting labor. Some people are getting very rich off this product, while others are apparently losing their jobs. The cuts due to technology are even deeper than the cameramen though. For instance the Weather Channel recently announced that they are going to scale back its programming to keep up with the times, which includes streaming video. With viewers cutting the cord on their Pay TV service in droves, the ratings are down for these niche channels that really have no relevance other than being fun to binge watch. Technology further hampers the Weather Channel when you consider the simple fact that we can reach into our pockets to get the 10 day forecast or YouTube a video of a disastrous storm, at much less of a cost. I think the selfie-stick and the overall impact technology has on the economy is extremely relevant to our studies. This simple ridiculous little device is cutting costs and creating wealth.
ReplyDeleteJG
As technology continues to evolve organizations would not only have to automate their workforce to save money but also to compete in terms of quality. Although they lack the human touch or the ability to innovate, machines offer loads of efficiency and the ability to work longer hours than humans without breakdown or reduced efficiency due to working longer hours. As a society we should actually alter our education system and workforce towards occupations that would support an automated workforce. As the demand for automatons grows, there would be a great demand for skilled manufacturing and repair personnel. I personally think that the greatest economic danger would be for a few corporations controlling the technology meant for production and that this could be prevented by increasing the amount of technical training in the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand businesses are becoming increasingly short sighted in terms of their revenue forecasts. Innovation and competitiveness boost revenue and the integration of new technology to cut costs is a short term fix which does not provide a long term resolution to organizational deficiencies.
An article by NBC news published a few years back mentioned nine jobs that humans may lose to robots- and sportswriters and other reporters was among them. However, not exactly in the way seen here with the selfie pole, but via software to create machine generated stories. In the first case the fixed costs to create the story would remain the same (building where reporters edit and publish their stories, software used to do this work, etc.), whereas variable costs, or the number of employees needed to create a story, would lead to savings. However, with the software generated stories, software may become a variable cost, if the news company is charged by the story created.
ReplyDeleteSome other professions mentioned include pharmacists (robots), lawyers and paralegals (software to do reviews, etc.), drivers (automated cars), astronauts, store clerks, soldiers, babysitters and rescuers. I think the selfie stick is only the beginning of the declining demand for labor, however as stated in many of the posts above, companies will have to look at the loss (cost) of quality when relying on machines instead of humans. Nonetheless, there certainly also will be scenarios where quality increases with the use of technology.
Aquino, Judith. (2012). Nine jobs that humans may lose to robots. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42183592/ns/business-careers/t/nine-jobs-humans-may-lose-robots/#.VspQo_IrLIU