Multimedia sparks an evolution of traditional media

Rob Curley of the Orange County Register speaks to OU students about the evolution of traditional media. Curley spoke at Meacham Auditorium at the University of Oklahoma student union Monday. PHOTO: Chad Hudson

            A media expert spoke to students at the University of Oklahoma Monday about the evolution of the media industry and how multimedia plays a major role in its success.

            Rob Curley of Orange County Register presented the change in traditional media at the Meacham Auditorium in the student union. Curley gave examples of how to be successful in building your audience by serving the community for a majority of the time, but also saving them when necessary.

            Curley is passionate about local news and while with the Las Vegas Sun he built an audience by serving his community. He focused on what his community wanted to know and had his staff. Curley and his colleagues built websites and gave access to the community in many aspects of their work. This simple strategy paid major dividends as Curley said the audience increased eight-fold in his time there.

            Students looking to pursue a career in media are going to have to know how to evolve in order to be successful according to Curley. “When [media employees] are getting laid off, it is usually the old grumpy ones. The [people] that are kept are the survivors because they are able to evolve,” Curley said.

            Curley said teachers often criticize him because of his blunt approach and he is not afraid to go against what they are teaching. After the meeting, he said students should ask themselves if they think their professors could be hired in the media at their respective positions. If the student does not think their teacher could be hired, Curley said, “then why the h--- are you listening to them?”

            The media profession is evolving at a rapid rate with technology making it so easily accessible. Curley’s insight about the evolution of the media is backed by a study by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation and Northwestern University's Media Management Center that says the Internet is an opportunity to experiment with multimedia in an effort to grow the amount of people viewing the information.