talkingdigital.org

talkingDigital is a work in progress compiled by Adam Cochran and a small team of tech lovers.

Who’s Adam Cochran?

Adam Cochran is a media and technology junkie with experience in radio, newspaper, magazines, social media and business.

The History of talkingDigital by Adam Cochran:

I have been fascinated with news and media for as long as I can remember. I can remember watching Dan Rather every night as early as 4th grade. As my political sense developed, I began to realize that information was interpreted differently across the various forms. I was determined from an early age that I would work in the media.

At first, I saw TV news as the superior news source. The summer before I started high school, when I was 14, I got a job at a radio station doing all the stuff that no one at the station wanted to do. That is the best way to break into radio – but you will stay stuck in that position for a long, long time. While working in radio through high school, I discovered journalism. Big ol’ thanks to Mark Newton who invited me to work on the Orange & Black, the world’s most professional high school newspaper.

I quickly gained an appreciation for newspapers and print media. While I was never a great writer, I loved the power of print media. Tracking current events became my favorite past time.

While attending Mesa State College, I began as a Graphic Art major. After taking all of the art and computer design classes I was interested in, I changed my major to Mass Communications with a Public Relations emphasis. It worked out well because I had been taking Mass Comm classes as electives with my Graphic Art degree.

When I graduated, I had a solid working knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, and Pagemaker. I had also had art classes every year since 6th grade.

I began work for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel as an intern during my Junior year. At that same time, I started a second internship for a small local radio show called Castellini on Computers (it was hosted by Rick Castellini). My radio experience came in handy on the show as I understood radio production and knew the various local radio personalities fairly well which occasionally came in handy when we needed a favor.

Not to bring in too many overlapping plot lines, but while working in radio, newspaper and going to school, I was working at Sam’s Club. Stay with me, because this is all important to the purpose and development of talkingDigital.

While at Sam’s Club, I began as a cart pushing, then a checker – as it turns out, I can’t count money very well. I was told that if my drawer was off again, I would likely lose my job. So, I begged to be put anywhere in the store that I wouldn’t have to count money. They put me in maintenance (janitorial staff). Sam’s Club is a fairly clean operation and most of the other members of the janitorial staff were there because they were capable of doing little more – I just couldn’t count money. I spent a lot of time walking around the floor with a broom.

The managers saw that I had a lot of spare time on my hands and asked me if I would work half my shift in the meat department. So, I cleaned toilets and floors during the first half of my shift and cut, priced and wrapped meat during the second half of my shift.

In the evenings and during my “off time” I discovered computers. I would design art work for The Sentinel in Photoshop, write articles in Word or compile music for bumpers for Castellini on Computers. It seemed like everything I was doing was centered around computers and I realized that I had an aptitude, not only for using the computer, but for teaching others how to use it.

Computers and the Internet took any time I had left, I learned as much about computers as I possibly could, as quickly as I could.

While walking around Sam’s Club with a broom, I would spend extended amounts of time in the computer department answering questions

and helping customers pick out the right system to meet their needs.

One day the general manager heard me giving computer advice to a customer. He asked why I was cleaning toilets, I explained that I couldn’t count money. The next day I was moved into the computer/technology department where I usually sold 3-5 computers a day while on duty. Customers often asked if I could come by after work and help them set the computer up. I began taking them up on their offers and charging $30 per hour to do the job.

I graduated college and worked for The Sentinel full time but also began doing some editing for The Beacon, a local newspaper targeted at seniors.

So, the day after graduation I was working part time at Sam’s selling computers. I worked full time at The Daily Sentinel doing layout, art, editing, writing, photography. On certain days I would work for the Beacon doing photography, writing, , editing and consulting. On the Saturday I would do Castellini on Computers – I also wrote the entire Castellini on Computers email newsletter each week.

After a while, it all became too much and I began look for higher paying jobs that would allow me to consolidate my time and energy. I was hired by a now defunct barbecue magazine and I quit The Daily Sentinel, Sam’s Club, and cut my Beacon time way down.

The barbecue magazine job didn’t last long and I decided to devote almost all my time to starting a computer help business. My love for journalism was set aside for a more lucrative job as a self-employed roving computer guy. Over the next nine years, I worked on computers at people’s homes and businesses. I was careful not to burn any bridges with my previous employers.

My clientele consisted mostly of seniors (or old people as I like to call them). I loved my job and it paid well but my heart has always been in the journalism and media field.

In 2009 I decided to take a leap and chase my passion. I sold my computer business and decided to head back to school to go for a Masters degree in Internet Journalism.

Currently, I am getting everything together to go back to school. Meanwhile, I am consulting with many local companies, helping them build PR strategies for social media. I also contribute to as many blogs, podcasts and other media as will allow me. Always on the lookout for newspapers, magazines, radio and any other media or press outlet that would like me to share my outlook on technology, the media and modern communication with their audience.

When I began in radio, there were still turntables and reel-to-reel machines. I worked at the first station in Grand Junction, CO to move it’s music and programing to computers. I got paid to sleep at the station incase the computers went down.

I began working in newspapers when layout moved from paste-ups to digital layout.

Now, I live in the world of podcasts, YouTube, and blogging.

I created talkingDigital for several reasons.

I want a place where I can share my unique experiences with the progression of media and technology. I also have a unique perspective as a guy who bought his first computer in College, had to have his wife set it up, but went on to help thousands of people learn how to better use technology in their daily lives.

talkingDigital is an outlet for me. It is not my goal to break news here, but to provide a perspective on news that may be missed by the media – new or old. It will always be an experiment. If you like what you read, please comment. If you don’t like what you read, please comment.

In the future, I hope to have podcasts, video and other content that expresses the changing world of social media, technology and information in general.

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