Media – Harm or benefit : Part 3.Radio,internet radio.

Radio is an integral part of our daily life. As alarm clock it  wakes us in the morning. At breakfast, we hear the morning news. Radio entertains and informs us when we go to work or school or when we are engaged in gardening. Even sitting in an office or working at a factory, we always listen to music, broadcasted on local radio stations. Featuring a unique combination of skills, radio has become an indispensable companion to a life of millions of people.

Traditional radio audience is teenagers. In an average week, 90% of people all around the world listen to the radio at least once, more than 80% - every  day. The average adult listens to the radio for 3 hours every day.

Listeners of the radio are divided into four main segments: radio fans of specific stations, fans of radio as a whole , music fans and listeners of the news. Fans of specific radio stations are the largest segment (46%). They prefer one or two stations, and spend up to 8 hours a day or more listening to those. Most of the fans of the radio stations are women aged 25 to 44 years. Fans of the radio as a whole make 34% of listeners. They listen to four or five different radio stations a week, with no specific preference. Most of them are under the age of 35, although this segment includes a large number of women aged 55 and older. 11% of people listen to only music on the radio and they mostly are men aged 25 - 45 years old and people who are establishing relationships. Finally, a part of the radio station is chosen by group of people who manage its need for news and information. They are almost always more than 35 years old and  prefer one or two stations, listening to which for short periods of time.

The most important advantage is the flexibility of radio coverage. The same radio station may be listened in different parts of the country and speak to people at any time of day. People do not need any cutting-edge technologies for that purpose, but only radio receiver, which currently is a part of the majority of the advanced gadgets. Especially that radio receiver itself is very small in shape. Hence radio is an ideal means of entertaining people while travelling to or from work. The negative side of this may be that the excessive use of headphones can cause hearing loss. The best option - output sound to the speakers, but then others will have to listen to radio with you. Hence the only way to get off this situation is a moderate use of headsets. 

The next advantage is that it creates musical background and usually does not distracts from work. However, this mainly depends on type of the radio station and genres of songs. The stations broadcasting, for example, rock music may be quite disturbing, especially if they are listened to in a high tone. In addition scientists do not recommend listening to radio while performing highly exact jobs, such as operations, or studying for exams. They explain that in these cases a brain needs all its capacity for work, and music alternating with dj's talks may exploit part of it, that in turn leads to decreasing in speed and accuracy of performing.

For long time one of the most popular advantages, after informational, was educational. Even now there are many radio stations which broadcast educational programs in physics, biology, medicine etc. Chiefly, they are student or university radio stations which introduce people with the basics and advances in sciences. Others carry the weight of culture, not only in a form of concerts, literary programs, performances of radio theatre(radio  plays and operas), but also in the form of lectures, special programs about the history of culture, the arts, the science and literature, biographies of great scientists, the history of scientific discovery, the life of the great scientists, engineers, inventors. Also there are radio programs for students about astronomy, the study of the universe, about space and space exploration. Young students learn the skills of observation of celestial bodies and constellations, became acquainted with the achievements of science in the study of the universe. Programs for young nature lovers tell about the habits of animals, wild plants, and learn to recognize them.

Now radio stations of children's topics become more and more popular, because they take into account age-specific and routine of small listeners. For example, "The Kids radio" in Russia broadcasts for all age categories: morning block is addressed to preschool, day programs - for children older than seven years, late at night - the block for both parents and children over 10 years old, at night - music for sleep.

Another advantage as for education as for entertainment is space of coverage. People in the different parts of the world can listen to the same radio station. Hence, this may be very helpful for language learners, who might get a possibility to improve their listening skills from native carrier of language. Moreover, people can easy get access to different culture through the radio, listening to the local news, types of songs, directions of music of another country. However, for this purpose you need more powerful radio receiver, than we usually have on hand.

Despite its huge advantages, radio traditionally had a number of serious drawbacks: it is only the audio. You can listen to the radio, but you cannot see it. This fact limits the effectiveness of perception of information and particularly remembering it. It is well known fact that people more rely on their sight than on hearing and vision memory of an ordinary person is better developed evolutionary.

Internet radio.

With development of technologies it has long been possible to listen to radio on the Internet. The minimum speed of the network, which does not occur stops and crash is about 64 kbit / s, which was available even in provincial towns 5-6 years ago in a mode without limit. Advantages of Internet broadcasting is that the user can select from the mass of radio stations, including foreign ones. For each musical direction, there are a variety of radio stations, and their number far exceeds even the number of television channels of satellite TV. And internet radio allows you to put in a free broadcast songs little known but talented musicians. The user can listen to music that never will be scrolled to the telephone - is an important factor for lovers of exotic melodies.

 If we compare the number of available stations in some provincial town, where it at best is a little more than a dozen, and the number of them on the Internet, then the comparison is not in favour of the first. Hundreds and thousands of stations broadcast around the world managed from small amateurs by a single person, to the numbers of the domestic and international broadcasting, such as the "Russian Radio" and "Europe +". 

However, there are a few drawbacks of internet radio. For example, to listen to radio stations from around the world a person will need to download and install on a computer  one of the specific programs, the best and most of which are paid. They are inexpensive, only 10-20 euro per year, but these costs seem too high at a time when conventional radio is free at all. To find a good program that would allow listening to the radio for free via the Internet is problematic, though possible. Free programs usually contain advertising.

 Advantage of Internet radio is also the fact that there is no need to download the favourite songs to your computer and the interface of this programs itself allows you to see song titles, artists.

 Now on the Internet you can find hundreds of free Internet radio channels and in different languages. Hence, internet users have virtually unlimited opportunities to listen to radio programs from around the world.