From DarkNet
A 'chaos theory" for big media
Bob Garfield has an insightful new piece for NPR's On the Media on what he calls the chaos theory of big media. Jeff Jarvis (briefly), Om Malik (briefly) and yours truly (briefly) are among those interviewed.
See An Impending Period of Transitional Chaos for Media.
I (and others) have been writing about this for some time -- the notion that we're in the midst of a major transformation in the mediasphere, away from traditional media pumped to us through one-way pipes and toward media that's much more under our control -- circular, responsive, malleable, multidirectional, personalized.
Simply put, people are looking to exert greater control over how they interact with media.
I just listened to it -- good piece, 12 minutes long, entertaining and dead on.
"The age of the mainstream media is passing. the new order is taking shape," Garfield intones. "Digits are the new widgets." He sees "an impending period of radical changes in the economy, the culture and society itself," and warns that "we are heading into a historically turbulent moment." Indeed, we've already entered this transformative period, which is ushering in "the democratization of media."
The result may be frightening to Madison Avenue, but it's empowering to the rest of us. "We cease to be demographics, we become individuals again," Garfield concludes.
"Mass media will be overthrown by micromedia," adds Drazen Pantic of Unmediated, perhaps a bit too melodramatically.
The show airs this weekend -- it aired Friday in LA, and it airs today in other cities.
