Are the media revolting?

Posted on June 1, 2006
Filed Under Social Media |

I don’t disagree with Andy on this, but I do think he’s asking the wrong question. The Internet (really the Web more precisely) didn’t demolish any industries but it sure did remake a great many of them and that is exactly what is happening in the media and advertising businesses today. And to his point about real estate agents, we’re starting to see cracks in that business as we speak, but the mortgage side of the business certainly did go through a significant disruption as a result of the Web.

I do disagree with Andy that the MSM is the only place you can go where truth is guaranteed given that there have been so many scandals over the last couple of years with big name journalists fabricating or plagiarizing stories (it’s really not necessary for me to list them, you know what they are). Andy’s reference to the BBC is somewhat laughable considering that just a few weeks ago they put a guy from their lobby on the air and identified him as an expert. In fact, the rush to blogs (ZDNet has done an admirable job of building a true blog network) by media is evidence that even they see their future as much more decentralized than it has ever been, and that access alone is no longer all that they can hang their hats on, that they will in fact have to compete with non-media professionals on the basis of the insights they are providing.

Lastly, it’s somewhat ironic that Andy points to Josh Greenbaum’s piece given that Josh is a newly minted blogger. Josh was at SAPPHIRE and did a fine job, but the 10 bloggers we had at SAPPHIRE provided equally compelling commentary, if not eclipsing at times. This comment will no doubt piss off a lot of people in our Global Communications team, but I was there and saw the reactions from SAP executives when they realized they were talking with people who intimately understood the topics at hand.

Andy on Enterprise Software: Are the media revolting?: In fact very few industries have been really demolished by the internet. I heard that there are 10% less people working as travel agents than a few years ago, but there aren’t too many others that spring to mind. Even that despised breed, realtors (estate agents in the UK) who essentially just control privileged information, are still very much in business. If the internet couldn’t displace them, what chance does it have with journalists?

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