This episode of Future Talks is on Media Megatrends.
In this program in the Future Talks online TV series, international futurists Glen Hiemstra and Gerd Leonhard engage in a conversation with Ralph Simon as he interviews them about the megatrends shaping the future of media. Glen and Gerd highlight such trends as …
The User/Producer, Ubiquity, and the Role of Trust
Among the many megatrends we’re seeing right now is the transition away from the sole model of a producer shaping content for the consumer downstream, to the addition of the user/producer who influences the media landscape through their interests, points of access, relevancy, and skill. We see this happening in the case of the successful amateur blogger whose potential ad revenue and readership serve as parallels to the salary and market share of a professional news gatherer, at a lower cost of production. And of course, we have the music aficionados, who are no longer limited to radio dial or the music store, but who can now click their way to becoming influential as taste-makers in their own right. The lines are blurring between professional and amateur, producer and user.
Supporting this megatrend is the growing importance of ubiquity of product. Media value is moving away from being set through an image of scarcity, to one of a multiplicity of access points. It’s no longer the limitations of shelf space that help to set the value, but how available the product/media can become. We will see some interesting developments as this trend becomes tailored toward the Digital Natives on one hand, and the aging Boomers on the other; each cohort will influence how media is created, bundled, shared and consumed.
This will all drive us toward an increase in the importance of trust. With the numbers of options from which to choose, combined with the move of established media producers into other media forms, the issue will become one of relevancy and context. Can you trust this media product with your time and attention? Is it relevant? As things develop over the next few years, particularly in the arena of traditional news and newspaper companies, the issue of trust will become a determining factor influencing how our media is created, shared and experienced. Newspaper companies that survive will become multi-media companies, as in fact is already happening.
This program and all the Future Talks programs are available at Media Conversations, both for viewing and as MP3 downloads. And the entire series can be obtained as free podcasts from iTunes.
1 Ken on Jan 1st, 2008 at 1:15 pm
This is a very interesting topic. I have been research changes in media and how the iPhone will blur the producer/user line with potential advancements in software and cellular tech. This plus the release of Google’s Android Open Source operating system opens a whole new realm of possibilities in media.
On the concept of trust, we crossed that boundary in the 1980’s without even looking back. Very rarely, since my day son the NSFnet, did we question the content although perhaps we should have. Trust is implicit in how we feel about the person telling it. The web simply allows us, at times, to put lipstick on the pig and make the information look credible. How to develop trust in digital media is probably best handled by the social networks themselves. For example, I know I trust certain sellers on Ebay more than others based on comments and the ratings they get. Do I know that these are not just friends trusting friends (i.e working the system)? No but as the ratings and comments go up across a varied geography I get a sense of security. The same would need to apply to eMedia also although how much do we really trust Fox or MSNBC when all is said an done?
If someone could figure out a way to make money being a media watchdog and then posting a trust moniker on certain news sites, it might add to credibility, that plus listener/readership voting.