"The media" is more and more an oxymoron
hastka and I have had several interesting discussions regarding corporate media. We've pretty much agreed that insecurity and inadequacy sells product, and that until we start refusing the constant pressure to always be "good consumers" and invariably buybuybuy spendspendspend, we're going to be stuck with that kind of media barrage -- that they do it because it works.
Hastka noted "media needs to be driven by something other than profit." So here's the question for everyone: how do we persuade the corporates and their media to consider things other than "profit first"? Do we penalize them legally, or refuse to buy their stuff, or engage in some sort of "vigilante justice" against their buildings, or what?
Saying "the media" is more and more an oxymoron"the media" is more and more an oxymoron. There are many sources of media. With barriers to entry crashing, there are going to be exponentially more sources of media every day.
Barriers to entry include, the cost of creation, distribution, and marketing of media. Each cost is falling through the floor. While in accordance with Sturgeon's Law ("Ninety percent of everything is crap"), most of this media is dreadful, the cream is very much worth checking out. Some examples:
- Creation Costs: Film making buffs now have contests where groups of volunteers using borrowed equipment make 20-40 minute films in a weekend for less than $1000. The best of these equal the quality of the kind of media that you would see on the Independent Film Channel.
- Distribution: Anyone with a cheap computer can make a weblog post or an audio podcast (or even a video cast) and have their material available worldwide.
- Marketing: Voting and referral systems (like the iTunes music store rating podcast popularity, Memorandum or Digg rating news stories and weblog post popularity) can create viral effects and expose little known media to millions of viewers.
Corporate media have huge costs for creating, distribution, and marketing their media. The new King Kong movie will cost well over $100 million to make, distribute, and market. The people who put it together must have a business model that has a chance to pay those expenses and make a profit. No one would put up the $100 million otherwise.
The explosion in non-corporate or semi-corporate media won't have to cover those huge costs. They can be supported as a hobby, by donation, by advertising, by subscription, or by lots of other means. Their media can be driven by lots of motives other than profit.
People with weblogs are already a part of this media revolution.
Posted by georgegmacdonald at November 15, 2005 12:28 PM