Frances Forde Plude

A World Wired for Telecommunications

[This document, and the two that follow, first appeared as Chapters 2, 3, and 4 in Exploring Careers in Communications and Telecommunications, by Zacharis, Plude, and Rancer, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc, 1985.]

[From Zacharis, Plude and Rancer, Chapter 2]

Meet Liz Young.

Dr. Elizabeth Young until recently worked as President of the Public Service Satellite Consortium. Liz Young's career shows how jobs are changing in our new world of telecommunications. A few years ago, in Ohio, she directed a statewide system of educational television stations. While employed in Washington, she worked connecting colleges in America with a communications satellite network. Now she's a vice president of a large satellite company.

From television to satellites--that's where the world seems to be heading. All these changes mean career shifts in the years ahead. Like Liz, you will shift gears often as you move through your work life. One of the biggest career challenges today is learning to grow and to retrain as new communications technologies alter the workplace. Here are some interesting trends to look for in career planning:

• Many more options or choices arise as communications technologies multiply and change.

  Result: Today and in the future it will be necessary to retrain regularly just to keep up with new technology thrusts and resulting job changes.

• Communication links mean that the location of the workplace is more flexible. Result: Some people can work at home, and people can meet regularly in teleconferences, connected by computer, audio, or video links.

• Some jobs will disappear, but others will emerge.
  Result: With computer data banks we can monitor job needs better, so we should be able to be well prepared for changes. In addition, we can use new technology tools to train people for 'emerging job fields (such as video cassette and videodisc training courses).

• In many communications technology areas, more job-sharing will enable people to work fewer hours and time-share jobs.
  Result: During leisure time people will tend to use more communications tools for entertainment and for instruction. This trend will allow both women and men to work at home part of the time, and it will have an impact on family life-styles.

The Information/Communication Society

A recent study showed that the United States has reached a point at which the major product we manufacture is information. About half of all workers are engaged, in the handling of or communicating of information.

The following categories of workers all produce information, or store it, or communicate it:

• Computer service technician

• Computer systems analyst-programmer/operator

• Electrical or electronic technician

Other information industries include:

• Telephone

• Postal Service

• Radio, television, and communications fields

• Motion pictures

• Advertising

• Libraries and schools

• Banking and credit

The age of information requires an extensive network of avenues of communication—electronic roadways over which the information travels. This network is similar to major roads such as interstate highways branching to smaller roadways. The communications, highways of the information age arc interconnected in a vast pattern that includes television and radio transmitters, communication satellites, computer networks, data hanks where information is stored, telephones and their vast interconnected links, and much more.

Each part of this information-transfer highway system has job slots—workers who organize the communication/information and keep it traveling over the various transmission routes. Those workers include:

• Computer software writers

• Graphic layout artists for computers

• Cable television personnel

• Advertising workers for new types of communications outlets

• Telemarketing staff for retail sales via video screens

• Editors and directors for teletext material

• Laser technicians

Communications workers in the information society will have to deal with still other realities that are changing the work environment. The following are some job- and career-related factors:

• Each year, nearly 4 percent of all workers will be in some kind of job-training program.

• A serious shortage will exist in engineering areas, especially computer software specialists.

• A geographic shift is occurring, with workers moving to the Southwest. The largest population growth will occur in California, Florida, and Texas.

• Among companies there is a growing decentralization of operations; workers are less inclined to move from one location to another than they used to be.

• Information travels faster over the communications highways, so sender and receiver are brought closer together. The quantity of information increases also, since we can respond faster and more often

• Computer technology can replace workers just as mechanization did in the industrial age.

• By the year 2000 the work-week will probably have dropped from 40 hours per week to 25 hours, with many employees sharing jobs.

• Unions will redirect their priorities to deal with decreasing job openings, increased retraining needs, and increasing numbers of working women.

• Service jobs will increase.

• Increasing numbers of people will be self-employed or work in small-business settings.

• Families are changing, with many new patterns emerging: single parents; two- career couples; a female breadwinner and a househusband.

• Microprocessors will mean that production and service jobs will require less skill, but engineers and supervisors will need increased skills and training.

The Fast Pace of New Opportunities

So what lies ahead for each of us seeking a career in our age of information? We will have increasingly exciting new options as technology opens doors to new opportunities. There may well emerge a work culture with highly paid, creative jobs for the information elite and many low-paid workers—with no large group in the middle.

One dramatic aspect of this revolution is its pace. The writer Frederick Williams notes that in the last eighty years more new forms of communications have developed than in all the previous 360 centuries. If those 360 centuries were reduced to a twenty-four-hour day, most communications technologies would have appeared in the last few minutes:

• At 8:00 p.m. the written word emerges (4000 B.C.)

• At. 11:30 p.m. the Gutenberg Bible is printed

• At 11:56:48 p.m. commercial radio appears

• At 11:58:02 p.m. color television appears

And in the last two minutes of our twenty-four-hour day appear satellites, computer time-sharing, the portable TV camera, home TV recording equipment, and computer memory advances!

The Impact of New Technologies

Meet Herb Granath.

Herb Granath attended Fordham University as a young man; he spent twenty-five years in broadcasting. He has worked in radio and TV at ABC and ABC, and he has had a lot of experience in broadcast sales and program production. In the late 1970s Herb became responsible for new technologies at ABC Video Enterprises. He's a good example of a person whose communications career has moved him away from radio & TV as we've known it; now he studies and serves many new video technology markets.

In a recent interview, Herb Granath explained that ABC is producing a lot of video programming for people who own videocassette recorders (VCRs), as well as videodisc users. The network packages special tapes of events such as the American visit of Pope John Paul II and the Olympics, as well as many "how-to" tapes. Other new ABC developments:

• Touch-of-Home is a videocassette service' for Americans living abroad.

• Video programs have been developed that feature theatrical productions.

• ABC News materials can be marketed in ten-minute modules for classroom use.

• Made-for-TV movies and other productions can have many different kinds of distribution, including ABC-affiliated stations, cable systems, pay-TV operations, and the international market.

Other ideas include a women's programming service distributed to cable systems by satellite; and a service that allows the network to deliver specialized shows (such as medical programs) between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m., "dumping" the program material by satellite through a system of specially activated videocassette recorders.

Granath and ABC Video Enterprises moved to supplement wide broadcast services with new narrowcasting video. All networks and major broadcast outlets were exploring these new avenues.

Here are details of the variety of new communications technologies. To plan for careers in these fields it will be helpful to see the overall relationship, the pattern of technologies. Once you see the picture as a whole, you can focus on individual areas and learn more specific details about its impact on career planning.

The new technologies fall into three categories: delivery systems, two-way technologies, and storage/programming technologies.

The most familiar category is that of regular channels for communications delivery, such as radio, TV, and cable. However, a lot of new activity is occurring in the second category, interactive communications fields. The most familiar interactive model is the telephone, a two- way device that we use all the time. The silicon chip and computer technology have made many other interactive options available, such as video games and machine banking and shopping.

The third area, the development and storage of program materials for new technologies, is the development of software for telecommunications.

Of course, many of these categories overlap in the job world. Companies or organizations are involved in several categories simultaneously.

The computer, the major new-technology tool, is at the heart of almost all the technologies listed. Chips and computers are especially significant in interactive technologies and in the storage and analysis of data and instruction.

With all these changes occurring, career planning is both complicated and exciting.

Communications Delivery Systems

"Broadcast" communications means the sending of an audio or video signal one way from one point to many points. By 1982 this was a $12 billion business.

Network television represents one of the most powerful broadcasting communications systems ever developed.

Below you see the number of broadcast radio and TV stations in the United States. Among these broadcasters are nonprofit and commercial stations. Some nonprofit stations are installed at colleges, where students can get early experience.

AM Radio 4848
FM Radio 3779
FM Educational Radio 1244
UHF Commercial TV 463
VHF Commercial TV 535
UHF Educational TV 187
VHP Educational TV 116
Source: FCC

Radio stations and listeners continue to increase, and network television still attracts major audiences. And now broadcasters themselves arc investing in new communications technologies.

Cable television growth is shown below as moving rapidly to surpass 40 percent of American homes. (More than 5,700 cable systems serve over 33 million American homes.) The largest cable companies will lead in developing new job opportunities.

Cable offers many delivery channels in the newer systems, so that a variety of programs can be sent: movies, cable radio, special community/arts events, sports, computer data, and teleshopping. A cable system 'can serve as a municipal communications system by linking schools, libraries, police, hospitals, and fire departments, almost as in a telephone system.

Cable operations are widely varied. Some are national, such as Ted Turner's Cable News Network in Atlanta. In contrast, many local cable companies are small. But career opportunities do exist as cities and towns begin to use cable as an effective delivery system. As advertising on cable grows, so will sales opportunities. Many women find cable a good opportunity for advancement, since media sales is often a good route to management positions in communications companies.

Cable growth occurred mainly because of another technology: communications satellites. Many people believe that the first satellite launched was like the Golden Spike that in 1869 completed the transcontinental railroad. Located 22,300 miles out in space, the satellite receives signals from the earth and distributes them to a large part of the United States as if it were a tall television tower.

Satellites transmit telephone calls, computer data, and video, including movies from pay-TV services such as Home Box Office (HBO). Cable companies receive programming from satellites and feed it into homes.

When the direct broadcast satellite (DBS) becomes a reality, more sophisticated satellites will beam programs directly to small receiving dishes on the rooftops of homes. This will be especially welcomed by the millions of rural Americans who are unable to receive broadcasts now because of their remote location. Like the computer, the communications satellite is a vital link.

Another fast-growing communications delivery system is the Videocassette recorder, or VCR. Recent years have seen an astounding growth in VCR sales, and many small shopping centers have stores that rent cassettes (and recorders) overnight or for a weekend. Some recorders can be programmed so that the machine will turn itself on and off many times (when you are away and wish to record a program). Or you can watch one show and record another channel simultaneously. Stereo sound recording is also available in some of the higher-priced units.

A variety of other video program delivery systems exist with various audience sizes.

Pay-TV is a delivery system under which viewers pay by the month or by the show for the special service. Subscription television (STV) is transmitted over the air by a local TV station but is limited to one channel. SMATV is a master-antenna service used mainly by apartment or condominium dwellers. Multipoint distribution- service (MDS) uses microwave technology for its transmission; it can offer multiple channels (eight, for example), thus making it a major competitor to cable systems.

Impact on Careers of Delivery Systems

In reviewing new communications delivery systems, some career trends can be noted:

• The telecommunications delivery marketplace has been broken up into many pieces. This means that smaller media markets will emerge, with job opportunities more focused on special areas.

• Advertising dollars will be spent in many of these varied areas, opening up sales opportunities (on a smaller scale, in some cases). Many individuals can gain experience in these smaller areas and later move up to larger markets.

• Many pay delivery systems depend on encoding systems, technologies that allow program delivery to special "addresses" only. This is one example of related o-r subordinated job opportunity areas.

• As communications delivery systems become more familiar, with VCRs moving into our homes and cable systems moving into our communities, more people will feel confident about reaching for jobs in those areas. Also, more colleges will prepare students for jobs through programs of study in the communications arts and sciences.

• To deal with competition for jobs in these areas, many people will prepare in several areas, to maximize their opportunities.

Interactive (Two-way) Technologies

Probably the most successful interactive technological tool is the telephone, and now that the phone is computerized, the industry is more active than ever. With more than 183 million telephones, Americans make over 800 million phone calls a day.

American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), the largest company in the world, was divested of its regional subsidiaries and, in exchange, was permitted to compete in new technological areas. Those areas include fire-alert systems, cordless phones, pocket medical transmitters, paging devices, car (mobile) telephones, video-screen information retrieval systems, and a worldwide transmission network known as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). Telephone companies are involved with computer technology almost as much as communications technologies. AT&T Information Systems (the company's new name) will continue to be a new- technology leader and a massive employer.

Teleshopping will continue to increase as new communications/computer technologies "do the walking" for us. More customers will order goods by phone or video screen. As more women work full time, less time is left for leisurely shopping. As banking-machine technology moves into retail stores, many financial institutions will be merchandise vendors. Thus, employers will tend to be financial/investment companies, linked to others, such as Warner Amex, a combination of Warner Communications Inc. and American Express Company.

Videotext will provide home shopping, along with other services. Videotext connects the television set to a central computer, enabling a subscriber to use a small keyboard for banking, shopping, doing research, playing games, and watching the news. Companies investing in this technology include Knight-Ridder, Times-Mirror, Dow Jones, Reader's Digest/CBS, AT&T, and J. C. Penney.

With the television set connected to a central computer, many people will be able to use the following types of service:

• Agricultural market information

• News/weather

• Home banking/shopping

• Electronic mail

• Business news; information

Another interactive arena is the video game market. Key companies include CBS/Gabriel Toys and Atari. These surged in popularity in the early 1980s but have dropped sharply in consumer sales (and price).

More than 30 million homes are equipped with games. Interactive educational games will no doubt continue to be significant in designing new interactive learning materials (computer-aided instruction, or CAI) in the years ahead. Textbook manufacturers continue to explore this market potential.

Perhaps the most staggering new-technology tool (potential rather than actual.) is the videodisc. Using laser technology, the videodisc player permits random-access interaction with program material.

When linked with a computer's storage capacity, the disc allows the storage of an entire encyclopedia or museum for visual retrieval. Up to 108,000 individual pictures can be mixed with graphics, animation, or text. This technology is not moving rapidly as a consumer product, but for business and institutional use it has enormous potential. That is especially true for personalized training materials, where "branching" allows a person to move through instructional materials and restudy items if he gives the wrong answer. Major companies include Pioneer, North American Phillips, RCA, General Electric, Sony, and others.

A new-technology consumer surprise has been the personal computer (PC). There is an increase in sales in just three years, and further dramatic growth is expected. The parts of the computer (keyboard, disc drives, printer, TV monitor) all process information from, or to, the silicon chip microprocessor. The software program instructions tell the computer what to do; when the PC is connected by telephone modem to information outside the home, the user can interact with other PC users in an electronic mail system or as information databases. Computers are also key elements in home security systems. For security, many homes will be hooked into monitoring systems connected to central computers and police or fire departments.

Two other major interactive technologies should be considered because of their job impact: videoconferencing and robotics. Videoconferences allow people at sites all over the country (or the 'world) to be interconnected by satellite and telephone technologies. It is estimated that every day 20 million meetings are held in the United States, and 90 percent of air travel is business travel. Some 80 percent of all meetings last less than thirty minutes, and 60 percent of all meetings could be handled by voice communication technologies. Now people can travel to a nearby hotel conference room and attend a meeting, saving long-distance travel time and costs. The video is transmitted from one source and received on large screens at the multiple locations; two-way audio provides live feedback.

Robots, on the other hand, represent a new-technology computerized item (a mechanical system, with flexible motions and intelligence functions) that can impact job opportunities in communications.

Although the automobile industry is leading the way in the use of robots, in less than twenty years it is predicted that robots could be performing the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs.

Storage Technologies—Career Choices

All communications delivery systems (radio, television stations, cable systems, and VCRs, for example) must deliver something. In most cases they deliver programs: films, video, or computer information.

The planning, production, and sale of all this program information represent a major communications career area. This is called the "software" side of the field, as opposed to the machinery, or hardware.

Listed below are samples of various communications companies and the types of job activities they offer.

Company

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN)

Cable News Network (CNN)

Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN)

Nashville Network

Learning Channel

Spanish International Network (SIN)

Music Television (MTV)