You May Be
Right I May Be Crazy
22 June 2018
But in most
cases, it could just be a myopic opinion that you have decided to share with
the world via Faceberk/Twitter/LinkedIn whatever. Maybe you need to cast a wider net, but that'll cost you.
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| Just because I don't fit, doesn't mean you wont... |
Thanks to
everyone wanting something for nothing, media markets are now the poster child
for why the free market is a delusional utopia. At first it was our own fault: the much reported on echo chamber created by surrounding ourselves with people
who agree.
You say something.
They nod.
Cool, let’s be friends.
As the term
“echo chamber” describes, all of a sudden all my friends are saying the same
thing as each other which is the same as me, therefore it’s the majority
talking.
Just to
make it easier to pick out your favourite type of person, fundamentalists use
easy to understand hashtags to point out who they hate: lefty, SJW, RWNJ,
flatearther, feminazi. If you don’t like any of these people, you can follow
any fundamentalist crackpot that suits your own particular cup of tea.
Media
companies know that the key to getting more advertising is by getting more
visitors. Fundamentalist crack pots, are just the type of bull horns that sites are
looking for. Active social media users will share anything that matches their
opinion.
That’s pretty
rudimentary maths. More action= more exposure= more visitors= $$$.
Now that some
media entities are realizing that, due to the obscene amount of static on the
net, content quality is starting to become more important, they need to pay for
that higher quality content, so they need more $$$. The best way for that to occur is subscriptions.
I’m going
to cut this long story short, by letting you work out the problem with this scenario.
Just answer this statement:
Would you
pay to listen to an opinion that doesn’t agree with your own?
Ok, you’ve
given your moral answer, now answer this question:
Are you
currently paying a subscription to a service that doesn’t agree with your
opinion?
So now, the type of content is being driven by what people want to hear, because that's what they'll pay for. Only public broadcasters can prevent this impending stench. Think about that next time people are talking about selling the ABC.
