In an earlier post, The franchise is the content, I quoted Tom Curley, CEO of Associated Press, on how Internet is more than just another distribution medium, “it has become our entire business environment…” Now the latest Pew Internet and American Life report,
A decade of adoption: How the internet has woven itself into American life, calls the Internet the “new normal”.
But even as the Internet has quickly become nearly ubiquitious, the report reveals interesting distinctions between demographic groups in which activities and content they prefer online (porn doesn’t seem to have been an option — that might have been quite revealing). The PDF report is nicely presented in graphs and charts for quick digestion to understand some basic Internet trends in the last decade. However, upon a closer examination, there is evidence that, beyond access and activity, the Internet hasn’t really transformed us that much. For instance, with all the press on political blogs and online reporting of the presidential campaign, the response to one question: “How have you been getting most of your news about the presidential election?”, doesn’t reveal much of a statistical difference between Non-Internet Users and All Internet Users. Although 28 percent of All Internet Users were getting news from the Internet (38 percent among those who have broadband at home), television was still the number one source of news for all categories of users (78% for All Americans, 84% for Non-Internet Users, 74% for All Internet Users, and 70% for Broadband at Home Users). And hold on to your hat bloggers: on any given day only 3 percent of All Internet Users read blogs. And 62 percent of online Americans dared to admit they aren’t really sure what a blog is.
But back to the notion of the “the franchise is the content”… See what’s in store for March Madness On Demand. CollegeSports.com is offering on demand, full-screen (and multiple split-screen viewing) of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Another great example of “unlocking the content from the vessel.”
what intrigues me is the effectiveness of the blogosphere and the whole idea that communities can dominate brands, media companies, businesses. even if only for brief but critical moments in time. Dan Rather, Easongate, the class action against Verizon, Krytonite etc.
Co-join this with the mobile phone and you did begin to wonder if the concept of mass media will soon become an oxymoron.
But I believe that the INternet and the mobile phone has liberated people, who have learnt to search and be proactive rather than passive consumers of news media, of TV broadcasting.
We have become our own editors of content and information.
All this aggregates into a societal shift of some significance.