The broadcast television industry has had to face two periods of significant changes in the past 30 years.
The first was the growth of cable TV and the addition of hundreds of specialty channels delivered to cable distributors via satellite.
The pre-cable world, television was dominated by the three major networks (ABC, CBS and NBC).
The addition of cable-only channels (ESPN, CNN, HBO) increased the program choices available for viewers dramatically.
The relatively stable TV viewing audience was now divided into smaller and smaller sections as the number of channels increased.
The second period of significant change was the growth in video on the internet.
Web sites such as Hulu were created by the TV networks as a way to stream their content to viewers directly.
YouTube made it possible for anyone to distribute video online.
One could agree that YouTube has changed the TV landscape forever.
The internet means that video creators and users are now connected in ways that weren't possible before.
For your journal topic, we want you to consider the implications of YouTube and other online video services on the industry, on the audience and on the content itself.
What is different about how we use video in a new interconnected world?
Think about this in terms of media literacy too.
Will we have a different understanding of the culture (and our world) now that we can watch many different videos from many different sources.
Your journal should draw on examples from the course material, but you should do some additional research on the topic by looking what publications such as the New York Times or others like it have written on the topic.
Your research should focus on someone who has studied or reported on the changes in television.

The broadcast television industry has had to face two periods of si...