The New Form of Media

The media is changing.  There’s a new kid in town that really breaks the traditional mold of how media and journalism and publication works in the world — our not-so-old-yet friend the Internet.

Newspapers, magazines, television, radio – all the traditional forms of media — primarily fit into a “one-person-broadcasts-to-many-passive-receivers” model.  Plain-ole’ static websites work this way too.  Even the first iteration of the way blogging was done was mostly one person just spouting their ideas for others to read.  Talk radio is a bit of an exception, but it’s still more of a one-man show than anything.  A slang term for it might be “the fire-and-forget media”.  It’s a lecture more than a conversation — one person is contributing, sharing or speaking, and everyone else consuming or listening.  This is the old media.

The new media is based on a whole new model — it’s interactive.  With technology being what it is today, people are demanding that journalism be more of a conversation than a lecture.  The Blogosphere is the best example yet, but an entirely new concept in the web is also emerging — called the “World Live Web”.  Here, content is no longer static.  It’s no longer one guy’s show.  It’s a conversation.  The publication of many voices on a given topic, all interacting.  In this world, a blog isn’t just me spouting my idea and everyone else reading it.  It’s me kicking off a conversation that everyone else participates in.  Here, it’s not just a static website, it’s the collective work of many voices interacting (from WikiPedia to Del.icio.us to My Yahoo!).

Even traditional forms of media, like television and radio, are trying to get into the game.  News and analysis shows now feature email segments, radio programs incorporate activity taking place on their website running simultaneously with the radio show, every “classic” static news web sites now allows you to comment on their news stories and editorials, etc.  These are all attempts to make the form of media at hand a collaborative effort, instead of a lecture circuit.

And one of the biggest components of this brave new world is the online community.  Here, a “common purpose, goal, or interest” is the gravitational center around which scores of people orbit — sharing their knowledge, experience and opinion.  The ideal community is a constant frenzy of interaction and collaboration, with loads of valuable information available to anyone, anywhere who is interested in the topic at hand.  This concept is at the center of the World Live Web — at the center of a new form of media.

Technorati tags: media, blogosphere, world live web