A little while ago, someone started a Twitter account with the name TheMediaIsDying.
Although their bio says that their aim is to help “flaks pitch better and update lists,” they seem to take delight in reporting they primarily seem to report on stories of print, broadcast and web outlets that are folding or cutting staff as a result of the rapidly changing media and economic landscapes.
To make the claim that the media is dying is to make the claim that it will no longer be possible to receive news or entertainment.
Yes, I’d agree that the traditional media is probably dying. I feel that I’ll probably see the death of the traditional, printed newspaper in my life time. In fact, I can’t believe that it isn’t dead already. Someone wiser than myself once made the point that if today you proposed the idea of printing out thousands of copies of a general assortment of news every night, then hand-delivering them to people’s homes early each morning, you’d be laughed out of the room. It is an outdated business model.
But that doesn’t mean the newspaper industry will die, only its printed form. The websites of major newspapers are and will continue to be a primary source of information for many people. Thanks to the hard work of people like Mathew Ingram (and despite the head-in-ass stance of people like Christie Blatchford), newspapers will evolve to meet the needs of an online world.
The same goes for other forms of media. While JPG Magazine might be folding, how many great photography sites and online photoshop tutorials have you come across?
As I Tweeted earlier, For every print publication that @themediaisdying reports dead, how many well-written, unique websites pop up?
Did the invention of the printing press kill off the spoken word? No. It just meant that hand-lettered books were no longer necessary, and it gave more people access to literature and information.
Did the invention of radio kill off the written word? Again, no.
Did television indeed kill the radio star? No, but it might have forced some radio stars to adapt to become more television-friendly. And it also created a whole knew breed of radio stars.
Did the internet kill television? Again, no. If you’re like me, you might not use an actual television set but you probably still enjoy watching television shows on your computer or portable device.
As a result of cringing and loving to hate almost every single tweet that @themediaisdying makes, I’ve started an alternative twitter account to spread good news about any media organizations, journalists, broadcasters, writers or videographers that are getting by just fine and adapting to the change we’re seeing in the media world.
So if you’ve got any stories about how the media is changing (rather than dying), hit me up by emailing mediaischanging@blogcampaigning.com or on twitter: @mediaischanging. (and feel free to follow me on twitter, too. I’m @parkernow)
The media isn’t dying, it’s changing.
viva la media!
-Parker
