ANALYSIS, Global: Web Media –

The media has the wrong idea on what YOU and I want to read and watch.

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.

News flash for the Media.

People are not obligated to read /watch your media.

Relevance will determine if they do.

An FAQ on the Current State of the Media

Media has lost the plot. Driven by dollars and eyeballs.

“Well I still watch CNN / read the paper.”

Me too. Sort of.

But how engaged are you?

Or is it background?

Do you fast forward, skip the ads?

“OK, I don’t pay full attention – but the Media is still powerful.”

Shocking news here! Only if they aggregate your eyeballs. ie. you pay attention. You control them.

It’s all 5,700 outlets with nothing on.

CNN is wall-to-wall Paris/Britney/Brangelina interspersed with Iraq, elections (that have not have started yet) and get-rich quick schemes.

The media corporations created that whole ‘phony’ campaign by reporting it.

Murdoch’s rags have some great journalists, but the content is commonly described as ‘opinions served as news’.

Fox News, The Daily Telegraph and the Australian newspaper are all often quoted examples given by media commentators.

In the US, there was the Wall Street Journal, but now Murdoch owns that…!

Even the venerable New York Times has had problems, and it’s part of the group containing the respected Boston Globe…!

Fairfax has the best traditional media structure in Australia.

“But if people are losing interest in Media, why are they still powerful?”

The Media is shaping societies interests, and trying to exert influence on what you, me and our children watch.

The more they lose viewers/readers, the more they grab at power, like addicts.

The power grabs are forced to become increasingly overt, in the face of declining engagement (ie. you reading / watching and noticing adverts.)

Think about it? Do you engage with adverts.

For a media corporation executives it’s how YOU watch the adverts that matter. (although this is not the case for most journalists).

“But wait? There’s no evidence of this. I don’t read blogs every day.”

No. Neither do I.

But fact is, change follows generations.

A change is only complete when a physical generation that was comfortable with it becomes older, and relinquishes power.

In other words, people under 30 are massively switching off traditional media.

Ever noticed they like reading off screens, and spend hours on the internet?

And if you think blogs are the final form of citizen media, well… there’s more to come. Blogs are an interim step in generational change.

Like from horse to automobile, we didn’t get to a Toyota Prius in 5 years.

“But this is all hype… media won’t change.”

They’ll have to. If you all switch off.

You know Massachusetts in the US, was once the center of a massive ice industry. They exported ice to India. Successfully. No trace now.

Bill Gates once run a tiny software company. Then came DOS PCs.

Just how profitable do you think newspapers will be once we have to raise the cost of paper to cover the environmental costs?

But you’re right the media moguls like Murdoch won’t let go.

Power wants to preserve power.

Media has been very settled for decades and decisions are increasingly centralized through soft-control and feedback loops.

“Huh?”

I hear you.

That means the media has such good statistics about what they think you read, that they think they know what you want, feel and think.

That’s why there are so many dumb ads that don’t ‘connect’ with me or you.

“Me?”

Well you in aggregate. Aggregated eyeballs.

You as a ’soccer mum’. A ‘dink’, a ‘breeder’ or a ‘pink’.

“Huh?”

All terms to describe you or someone else. As a group.

As a set of aggregated eyeballs. A slice of the demographic pie assigned a dollar value as a market segment.

“But I am person. I live, breathe, feel.”

Yes you are. But a person can’t be aggregated in a database as readership / viewers to sell adverts to.

To a corporation you are an aggregated eyeball neatly slotted in a category.

“But I want to be a person again…
I don’t like being aggregated …

it’s uncomfortable.”

Well writers think of you as a person. Other citizens think of you as a person. Many journalists think of you as a person.

So say hello to citizen media and web 2.0.

“Web 2.0? Isn’t that for techies?”

No. Web 2.0 is user-generated content and communities.

Citizen Media is a part of this. You may not write, but you get to decide what you want to read, and even what other’s read.

It’s your content.

And quite frankly, you don’t have to be aggregated.

“Well that’s a relief!
All that Aggregation was getting uncomfortable.”

I know. Even journalists aren’t keen on it.

take care

Christopher

PS. If you are in Melbourne or Sydney, attend my Web 2.0 seminars.

More globally to follow. www.simple.net.au

You’ll learn a lot. And I don’t waffle in tech-speak into my beard..