Seara buna copii. Iata o bucata din eseul pentru EMS, in care a trebuit sa-mi dau cu parerea despre viitorul medie-ei europene. Voi ce parere aveti? Care va fi viitorul?

Don’t hate the media, be the media!

This is the slogan of the indymedia website, where people outside of the journalist professional sphere can publish articles and add news. For me, the future of European media, and even global media, can be summarized in these words: be the media. So we are talking about a new type of media, that’s for sure.
But what is new media? It started to be a serious issue with the development of the internet. These media rely on digital technologies, allowing for previously separate media to converge. Media convergence is defined as a phenomenon of new media and this can be explained as a digital media. The idea of ‘new media’ captures both the development of unique forms of digital media, and the remaking of more traditional media forms to adopt and adapt to the new media technologies.
As we can see even nowadays, media tends to converge, and much of this phenomenon is due to the increase of the power of the internet all over the world. As we can see, this tendency is towards an empowerment of the user, of the consumer of media, of the ordinary citizen who is becoming more and more important in the media landscape.
How did the regular citizens, like me become part of the media? This is especially due to the enlargement of the internet usage, and the rise of the so called web 2.0. This trend is all about the user. The user creates content. That’s how weblogs, forums, portals, and all sort of applications which are user centered have constantly built an alternative to media as we new it until 10 years ago. This is not going to stop. As web 3.0 knocks on the door, we will have applications which learn how to communicate between them, and will facilitate the gathering of all the issues and information one person is interested in all together in one single cyber location. The user will be able to control his blog, watch the favorite movies, to see what the members of his blog community have written lately, everything fully customable.

Gathering scenario

The users have power already, but in my opinion they will have even more power. Probably we will enter in the stage two of the digital system. For me, in 20 years, we will have an unique signal reaching our unique receiver, and we will have the possibility of choosing the type of media conversion we prefer. So, via fast wireless technology we will get an unique signal, which we’ll be able to convert in moving images, printed press or at least detailed content, sound only or, who knows, maybe even holograms who tell us what has recently happened. And this unique receiver I think it will be portable. There is already a growth in the industry of IP phones, with wi-fi technology and also 3G. So everything will be customable, everything will be portable. We will be able to access all the information all around the world, in every moment, being able to make an “a priori” selection on what kind of data we receive. So there will be no need to go to watch television, after to go and surf the internet on the computer, and then go talk on the phone. Everything (or almost) will be all in one. The new media in the future will gather all the actual new media in one unique signal.
For sure, this unique media gathering on a single portable device will, in my opinion, follow the trend of civil media, which is already today a big thing. Nevertheless, regulations will be more strict, and also slowly the traditional media will morph into a more friendly and social identity. There is also the possibility that the professional media and civil one will start to complete each other and live together in a process of symbiosis.
Because of the ongoing user centered trend, I think that practically mainstream media will disappear. More detailed segmentation and the niche broadcasting will takeover. Then niche media is already strong, and I think it’s only going up. So, instead of mainstream media, we will talk more about tribal media, in which the end consumer has power to modify the content, and to send it again mainly to the members of his or hers media tribe. The tribes will be small, with strong identity, will have very specific interests and will be able to sharply select the content they receive throughout the media.

Ownership

Ownership of the media I think it will become a very big problem, due to the cannibalism phenomenon which started already. Only the big ones survive, and the tendency is without any doubt towards a monopoly, if the coercive powers do not take act. See the case of Silvio Berlusconi, who controls more than 60 percent of the Italian media. And he does not stop at the borders of Italy, that is for sure. So, if European Media will not have a monopoly, it will surely be organized on a duopoly system.

Conclusions

As the media is without any doubt one of the most dynamic sector of business, nobody can predict on long term what is going to happen with it. But, the trends of today can guide us to think that the digital era will evolve, the civil media will increase its’ power and the most important aspect is that the user, the consumer, the simple receiver will be able to decide what, when and how he gets out of the media, and also actively switch to the transmitter role.