As I listened to NPR this morning in the car, I heard a retronym! If you don't know about retronyms, you can read my blog from last April 1 (not an April Fool's joke) to learn more. But here's the one I heard this morning: "legacy media." I knew immediately what it meant, even if it hadn't been followed by its counterpart, "new media." Back in the old days (I intentionally left "good" off that phrase), when we said "media" we primarily were referring to newspapers, radio, and television. Not anymore. Now we have to differentiate those forms of media from the new media of Facebook, Twitter, texting, etc.
Now I'm wondering how long it will be before that word, media, becomes a singular noun, and especially wonder when I hear people employed by the media saying, "What's the legacy media have to say about that?" . . . but that's another blog waiting to be written.
No comments:
Post a Comment