The media world is going through a painful transformation. New technologies, the growth of Internet users, and people who are increasingly tired of mass media all contribute to this change. How can a large chain newspaper, a broadcasting television group, or a cookie-cutter type radio system explain the dynamics of your neighborhood? In this entertainment world, large corporations are more concerned with suing file infringers rather than helping customers create easy digital channels so they can get what they want when they need it.
The media shift is not just about David versus Goliath. It's a new way of thinking, or perhaps an old way of thinking that was lost during the era of large media mergers, which only focused on profiting from the users they served. The democratization of media allows billions of flowers to bloom, handing over the power of news analysis, commentary, expert insights, and mockery to the masses, who now have access to cheap blogging technology, digital cameras, and broadband internet.
With this transformation comes a flood of experimental and error-prone experiments, some of which manage to break through the hype, while others fall short. Sometimes these newly established sites are merely old ideas dressed up in new media clothing. So I decided to try and clarify how the media is changing, starting from both mindset and actual real-world examples.
Old Think: Use specialized research groups and customer surveys to understand what people want.New Think: Capture people's input using real-time online feedback loops like online forums, blog comments, and wikis.
Old Think: Big brands like Walmart attempt to use limited social networking sites to make themselves appear cool.New Think: A social networking site like Xanga lists out these dangers instead of pre-filtering (this content).
Old Think: Video services like MTV Overdrive require Windows PCs with IE browsers to be used, limiting the user base.New Think: Video services like YouTube, which use Flash technology, do not exclude Mac users and Firefox browsers.
Old Think: Develop a digital camera that cannot fast forward through commercials.New Think: TiVo launches "Product Watch" allowing subscribers to access information about products and services they are interested in.
Old Think: Make people watch TV ads in public places like grocery store lines and elevators.New Think: Open up the creative process to allow people to create their own TV ads, as Chevy did for the Tahoe SUV.
Old Think: Force people to register to read news sites or watch video services, then bombard them with targeted ads.New Think: Let people view the site without registering and serve them targeted ads based on their interests—such as a.k.a's behavioral advertising.
Old Think: Rely on mainstream media TV coverage channels to track wars and conflicts.New Think: Read blogs, citizen journalists witnessing wars, or soldier journalists sharing their words or videos, and watch photos taken at the scene with camera phones.
Old Think: Read, listen to, and watch media according to schedules set by executives and programmers.New Think: Access the information, news, and entertainment we want, whether commercial or non-commercial, whenever we need it.
Old Think: Turn on car radios to listen to our favorite music or radio dramas.New Think: Get satellite radio or portable MP3 players hooked up to our car audio systems to listen to hundreds of non-commercial satellite stations or thousands of podcasts downloaded from the Internet.
Old Think: Assume major news agencies always get the big stories right and never make mistakes.New Think: Follow trustworthy bloggers who can expose Photoshopped war images, false or biased reports, and fabricated sources in mainstream media articles.
Old Think: Believe only professional editors can decide the important stories of each day.New Think: Realize we have the power to choose what is significant news, whether through aggregation services like Google News, crowd-sourced news sites like Digg, or personalized sites like My Yahoo.
I invite everyone to add their own new think perspectives against old think views in the comments below. If there are enough contributions, I will return to this post and update it with everyone's thoughts and ideas.
[Image provided by Eugene Zhukovsky]
Original Address: Oldthink vs Newthink: Spelling Out the Media ShiftOriginal Author: Mark Glaser"