 By John Gaudio,
Other members of the media have embraced the new tools, but one thing is certain. The days of ABC, CBS, and NBC controlling the world of broadcast media, are forever gone. Ten years ago most TV and Radio Stations had no web pages. Today, many of their stories come through, and are embellished on, their web pages. Viewers instigate stories and close feedback loops using services like Twitter, Facebook, and email. Live reports come from across the world via Skype audio and video links, and armies of bloggers check the facts, and do the sort of research that should have been done by people like Dan Rather and his staff, before they lost their jobs for blindly accepting falsified "evidence" that they desperately wanted to believe about President George W. Bush.
A Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." describes well today's state of affairs in the world of media and communications. Newspapers are dying. Daily updates are no longer fast enough, so newspaper companies now create and update stories on the Internet side of their operations throughout the day, and newspaper websites no longer limit themselves to print, but regularly include audio and video, which were never before associated with their industry.
The very term, "Broadcasting" implies the sending of one broad message to the masses. Internet 2.0 requires conversations, bi directional communication, and micro casts. It provides the ability, through tools like YouTube, Blogger, Flickr, & Twitter, for individuals with no real capital, to communicate with the world, and to compete with the giants of old.
I'm covering NAB 2010 next week, April 10-15, in Las Vegas, to learn more about new tools and technologies to enable "Broader Casting," this year's buzz word for the integration of New, Legacy, and Main Stream Media. Some media giants embrace new paradigms, others are impaled by them, but none retain the massive unchecked influence they enjoyed just ten years ago. Propaganda, politics, advertising, entertainment and communication are forever changed. The power is shifting, and our world will never be the same. |
