MEDIA FRAGMENTATION IS SEEMINGLY EXPONENTIAL. In my last article I discussed the shift from broad to narrowcasting to what I term socially reciprocal media – where people aggregate and create their own media, and actively respond to and participate in the messaging process. The most iconic result may be YouTube. It seems more irony than anything else that YouTube’s slogan is ‘Broadcast Yourself,’ when in so many ways it represents the end of ‘broadcasting’ and the incubator of the ultra-niche; content as broad as its audience. And this applies to all kinds of media. I heard the joke recently that there are more indie music genres than there are indie artists. An exaggeration, perhaps, but one that points to a powerful reality. Author, speaker and thinker John Blumberg speaks of it as ‘the speed at which we move,’ and encourages finding a space to process the sheer mass of information we experience.
So how do you reach an audience, who are in more and more different places, consuming more and more various forms of media? If we’re honest, the signal to noise ratio seems pretty loud. I firmly believe the key is media integration. For over 100 years it has been the media creatives who have been fragmented, not the audience. Designers, musicians, photographers, writers, filmmakers and fine artists focused more on distinguishing themselves from one another than presenting a cohesive creative front. But, with the advent of modern Internet usage, these ‘individuals’ find themselves residing in the same platform. People are accessing media in a whole new way, and the only way for creative messagers to consistently engage those people is to integrate. Check out what designer Chris Coyier lists as imperitive skills for a modern web designer. Various mediums must work in ever tighter tandem to articulate the message, and increasingly that message must be social in nature to survive.
The convergence of mediums has enormous potential. The web desperately needs the long-standing discipline of print design to refine and expand its usability, approachability and depth. Fine artists and photographers can, and are, finding benefits by way of exposure and personableness; work is better appreciated if part of the process or inspiration can be shared in writing or behind the scenes footage. Authors and publishers will continually need to find new ways to reach through other media to connect readers with their words.
There will be a short life and limited effect to messages that choose one medium. Even shorter will be those who choose not to truly integrate the social element into their media spectrum in a meaningful way. A large-scale example of a failure to do this is the recent Conan O’Brien/NBC fiasco. NBC, with it’s breadth of communication avenues, refused to hear from its vocal audience. While only time will bear out the extent of the numbers, it is undoubtedly a loss to their ability to connect with an increasingly social audience.
And that is the goal, isn’t it? To connect people with places, ideas and other people. That is why we create – integration itself.
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