Many of my clients want me to try hard to place their story in the biggest of the mainstream media -- the regional daily newspaper, the network affiliate TV station, or the wire service. I'm glad to do it (or attempt it; there are no guarantees when it comes to media). I am child of the mass media, I have practiced the art of journalism in newspapers, television, and radio.
But the days of high 'n' mighty mass media controlling what we see, hear, and read are numbered.
The trend is moving powerfully in the direction of citizen media -- content provided by ordinary people like you and me, not the editors at the metropolitan daily newspaper or the news director at the #1 television station. Clients are amazed when I suggest alternative directions for placing their message.
But now I have some ammunition.
J.D. Lasica, a former Sacramento Bee journalist in California, has a fascinating post on his (one of four!) blogs, new media musings. He has written about the "top 10 ways that media has impacted our culture in 2005." Most of the stuff on the list wasn't even in the public consciousness two or three years ago!
Here are his #1 and #2 changes, which really set the tone for the rest of the list...
1. The edges gain power. From the video and music worlds to politics and culture, power is increasingly flowing away from the media, from the political elites and from the corporate suits and into the hands of ordinary users who are collectively wielding more influence in all walks of life, mostly thanks to the Internet. The forces of freedom are steadily chipping away at the power of the forces of control. It's pure beauty.
2. Citizens media takes off. Few amateurs are creating citizen journalism, but millions of us are creating our own messy, democratic works -- photos, video, audio -- and a lot of it is astonishingly good. The introduction of devices like the video iPod will propel citizens media into millions of more homes, while traditional, force-fed, top-down, linear Big Media programming and content continues to falter.
For the record, here's the rest of his list:
3. The rise of Web 2.0. [If you want a definition of this move toward on-line services rather than software stored on your hard drive, go to Lasica's post.]
4. Google growsd into a collusus.
5. Skype hits 50 million users. [I wonder what their penetration is in Indiana.]
6. Social media become a force. Community sites like MySpace, Facebook, Flickr and Buzznet gained success and prominence on the strength of social networking, tagging and other tools that promoted the idea of media as a conversation.
7. Cell phones get smart.
8. Print's decline accelerates.
9. Podcasting becomes a movement.
10. The power of goodwill. Thanks to online fundraising efforts, relief agencies raised record donations for victims of the South Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.
Honorable mention: Blogging gets big. Yes, blogging already made its impact with the 2004 election, if not before, but blogging achieved mainstream status in 2005 by dint of sheer numbers (over 24 million blogs today) and by its rising up alongside mainstream media as an influential part of the public's media diet. Between blogging, Google Earth, and sites like MySpace, Flickr and Facebook, we're continuing to see a steady erosion of traditional notions of privacy.
J.D. Lasica is co-founder of Ourmedia, author of four weblogs, and was a contributing editor for Engadget during most of 2005. The latter is a great blog reviewing gadgets coming onto the market -- and it's in hog heaven with the Consumer Electronics Show now happening in Sin City Las Vegas.
Hat tip to Bulldog Reporter's Daily 'Dog for noting Lasica's list.
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