Media production was formerly restricted to centralized, high-investment cost production facilities. The technology and the business model of delivering Hollywood movies, newspapers, magazines, and corporate music relied on hard copies of packaged content that gained revenue from subscriptions and advertising sales. After years of relaxed media ownership rules, the mass media has become highly concentrated in a small number of multinational conglomerates.

As all media becomes digital and networked, the environment is changing from media specific devices and rigid, corporate controlled channels into a flexible, software designable open space. Thanks to low-cost tools for production and distribution, anyone can self-broadcast. This has profound consequences for media and society.

A decentralized, publicly engaged media sphere acts to reform the shortcomings of traditional media. People are free to report on the news they care about, without the restrictions of corporate gatekeepers or deadlines, and achieve popularity based on merit and interest. New creators can find a voice with little more than a laptop and a camera. This vision of a democratized, user-engaged online public sphere holds great promise. In order to preserve the generative and disruptive qualities that have characterized digital media thus far, it is imperative not to let online video degrade into the porting of old media structures of centralized, fee-based, broadcast models on the web. Rather than solely under the control of a handful of established media giants, the future of media online should rest in the hands of those who have the greatest stake—the users.

More info:
Free Press
National Conference on Media Reform
Yochai Benkler

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