New Media Keeps Rolling

The practice of media conglomeration has been happening for decades. It is a practice that consolidates small companies into one larger company in order to more effectively communicate to the masses. Conglomerates act much like a snowball rolling down a hill. They begin buying up a couple of little companies, and before you know it they own a massive percentage of the market.

For a while, we had regulation, meaning conglomerates were only able to own a certain portion of the media. But in the last few decades the process of deregulation has been taking place. In this process, conglomerates are allowed more and more, until they own up to 90% of the market.

This poses a major problem. It has become very evident through the recent problem with the Writers Guild of America strike. If something happens to several of these big conglomerates, (in this case a strike) the whole system breaks down. This is evident in the state of TV right now. TV is being forced by the writers strike into re-runs and shoddy reality TV, two things that consumeristic America hates. We want new and better content.

This situation happened before, in 1988. When it happened then, the state of TV and Hollywood was wounded beyond repair, with good shows being cancelled permanently, the eventual invention of reality television, and a slump in programming that took years to overcome.

I believe the situation now is quite different however. Whereas in 1988 people had no other options for entertainment than TV and Movies, we now have many new outlets of media to turn to. If we are forced to watch re-runs, we will simply turn to Youtube and watch user created content. The internet and the advent of Web 2.0 leaves us with another, (might I add open and unregulated) outlet for expression and entertainment. Because of this, I predict a genesis for online content, produced not by major conglomerates, but by the consumers themselves. As this genesis continues, these new creators will get better and better at their craft until the point that New Media creators will be on par if not more accessed than the conglomerates themselves.

An example of this is found in Star Wars online Fan Films. If one watched one of these fan films 5 years ago, it was hard not to laugh at the amateur-ness of these endeavors, but today, with the help of lowered technology costs and better equipment as well as more refined skills there are some fan films that even rival the original creation. I think that we can look forward to more of this across the board as the genesis of New Media occurs.

I'm not saying that conglomerates will disappear altogether, but instead that they will be forced to take on new forms and become more liquid as the world around them changes. As the world becomes more of a global village, the voices of the many will outnumber the voices of the powerful few. People now have the ability through technology to be truly equal. In a time like this, it's important that we see that there is a new dawn occurring in media, and it's best that we get on board.