Narrow Casting

December 22, 2005 2:41 AM

Narrow Casting: This article describes the trend of narrowcasting, a media consumption pattern in which users increasingly turn to specialized, often web-produced media content and away from professionally mass-marketed content shown on TV and sold in record and video stores. [Via Aldaily.com]
posted by gregb1007 (12 comments total)

Um, welcome to 2000?
posted by zpousman at 5:07 AM on December 22, 2005

Well 2000 would have been a bit too early, given the fact that cable/DSL Internet have only come into the mainstream within the last 2 years. Without broadband, you wouldn't have the same access to quality audio/video over the Internet.
posted by gregb1007 at 5:18 AM on December 22, 2005

gregb1007 must live in a backwater, I've had ADSL broadband since 1998.
posted by furtive at 5:43 AM on December 22, 2005

furtive, I guess I am not one of the early adopters. In my extended family, we've got hooked up to cable internet rather recently. This is not to say that it wasn't there since 1998, but it has become very widespread only within the last 2 or 3 years. That means that nowadays every other other teenager, generation Xer probably audio/video blogs, where as in 1998 - 2001 that wouldn't have happened.
posted by gregb1007 at 5:59 AM on December 22, 2005

The writing style is so self-consciously trying to be cool that I want to punch the author. A also think this is incredibly sensational. I'll bet Sumner Redstone slleps pretty well at night despite your blog and your internet radio station.

And any video over three minutes long distributed primarily on the web by its authors sucks. Hard. Period. There's a reason that crap's self-released.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:13 AM on December 22, 2005

If this is the way things are going which I somewhat doubt I think it's unfortunate that in an age where we access to so many differing viewpoints and perspectives we choose to close our ears to that and become even more colloquial than before only this time our colloquisim knows no borders.

As an englishman living in the US it struck me just how divisive it was when people moved towns at the drop of a hat, moving to communities that they felt better suited their beliefs with the net effect that San Francisco has no republicans and small town somewhereville doesn't have a single gay couple. In the UK this movement doesn't happen so much so your day to day exposure to different walks of life is much more common.

Media fragmentation could have the same effect whereby if you get to choose never to hear an opposing point of view then your own view becomes increasingly narrow and your view of 'them' increasingly abstract.
posted by zeoslap at 6:47 AM on December 22, 2005 [1 favorite]

2000 was too early but not completely because of broadband penetration (which the US is still way behind on.) People, especially you ng people, had not gotten use to creating content.

I produced a broaband, user submitted, youth targeted site from 99 to 01. All I can say is too much too soon.

The progression for creation seems to be text, images, audio, then video.
posted by daniel9223 at 8:47 AM on December 22, 2005

Precursor to how people live in highly segregated communities in Neal Stephensons futuristic The Diamond Age. Something we might want to consciously avoid.
posted by parallax7d at 8:51 AM on December 22, 2005

Nothing new here. Although that Pandora thing looks interesting. Bookmarked.
posted by Afroblanco at 9:08 AM on December 22, 2005

Remember the Wired coverstory from March 1997 about "Push" and how'd we all be reading the "daily me" and all that shit. I conciously picked a later date, but sheesh, if anything, my "welcome to 2000" comment is a few years too late!
posted by zpousman at 10:25 AM on December 22, 2005

Did you serve websites with photos, audio and video in 97? I did. It was not very easy. Unless I am missing the point of the article, which says, "...the emerging 21st century mass technoculture of podcasting, video blogging, the Google Zeitgeist list and "social networking software" that links people on the basis of shared interest..."

To me that says prosumers making content that people find and consume via non-traditional distribution systems. I promise that was a lot harder and less prevalent until recently.
posted by daniel9223 at 10:38 AM on December 22, 2005

A moment of silence, please, for the imminent death of the old Mainstream Mass Culture.

I would have read the rest of the article, but my eyes rolled so hard at the first sentence that they fell right out of my sockets and rolled under the couch.
posted by Spatch at 1:03 PM on December 22, 2005