The new media revolution

We are in the midst of a media revolution as big as the one that happened when Gutenberg invented the printing press. It will contribute to major social changes and change the balance of power in society, but first and foremost it will change the way we communicate with each other. The driving force is the shift from analogue to digital media.

When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the mid-15th century, it was the beginning of a media revolution. Before that, if you wanted to reach out to a lot of people, you either had to travel from place to place and speak directly to them or pay monks or scholars hefty fees to copy a manuscript by hand. The printing press made it possible to produce books and pamphlets at a cost far below what had hitherto been possible, and thus mass media was born. The printing press contributed to social changes, since it became easier for social critics to spread their messages, and the Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment would probably not have been what they were without it.

The age of communication
We communicate more than ever before. Mass communication is no longer just communication to the masses, but also communication from the masses. The internet has become a common tool for communication for billions of people across the world, and the combination of computers and internet creates a platform for creating and sharing content in networks. Media creators and media users meld together, and mass communication has become a dialogue rather than a monologue.

The new digital platforms create fertile ground for an enormous growth in the volume of content, and we have seen a similar growth in the number of media companies, because all companies have now become media companies - even the small local smithy now has its own website. Collaborating with bloggers may help you double your sales. You have to be active in the media. The quest for visibility on the internet is just as important for organizations as it is for private individuals.

The result is a wealth of data in which everything can be found and will be found, including things that are embarrassing to authorities and companies as well as private individuals. For better or for worse, the world has become transparent. WikiLeaks has published thousands of secret cables and documents that put American authorities in a bad light, and information about companies' unethical behavior is leaked to the net by disgruntled employees. Embarrassing photos from private parties and nude pictures of ex-girlfriends also find their way onto the internet and can create problems for the people implicated. Experience shows that once the cat is out of the bag, you cannot force it back in, and attempts to do so may make it even more noticed. This phenomenon is known as the Streisand Effect after Barbra Streisand, who in 2003 tried to get a picture of her Malibu house removed from a public database of coastal images. The case drew a lot of attention and made several hundred thousand people go looking for the picture.

The major challenge of the future will not be to find information, but rather to limit the flow of information to what is relevant to each individual. Traditional media use editors who sort through the content and only pass on what they find relevant to the media users. At the same time, these editors stand as guarantors for the credibility of the information they pass on or, or at least that the information matches a personal or political agenda the media seeks to promote. As a media user, you know what you get. On the new, decentralized media of the internet, there is rarely any editorial function as such - at most a moderator who ensures a proper tone and removes directly inappropriate contributions.

 BY KYEJU DIANA

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