Content Overload & Trends in TV Viewing Rituals

The largest companies today are obsessed with generating content in a completely de-ritualized context. But content always exists in tension with form. Ritual is the form we have abandoned in our relentless quest for content.

“Content is king” became a cliche because it was the hallmark of the media business. Without great content, not much else matters. But the platform and scale era scrambled that. Distribution became the gamechanger. Publications had BuzzFeed envy. By the same token, media’s indirect business models -- content in some publishing organizations can be ... See more

Over the last decade, our dominant form of content consumption has evolved from static posts to stories. And now we’re seeing the next evolution — a shift from planned content to real-time live and unedited content.