Human as Media. The Emancipation of Authorship

As a result, journalism is deprived of its monopoly over analysis and opinion. Thousands of journalists lose out to millions of bloggers not only in terms of reach, but also in terms of competence, style and wit.

An Internet presence is no longer an additional business opportunity – it’s a matter of existence. If you’re not on the Internet, you’re not in business. We’ll soon say the same about human beings. No links – no human.

In their struggle for more and more doses of this drug, the users develop a virtual presence at the expense of their presence in the real world. Society has not yet developed a code of Internet hygiene to control such risks.

TV culture requires nothing more of individuals than to be a couch potato. The maximum participation available to them is the choice of channel. In contrast, on the Internet, the minimum level of participation already entails a higher level of involvement. Even liking or reposting something means making a public display of one’s position.

Thanks to its comprehensive coverage, any possible connection between people will be not only probable, but inevitable.

Dunbar’s number plays a certain role in the ensemble-like interaction of the large number of participants on the web. Robin Dunbar, in his research into the brains of primates and the organisation of groups,[54] determined the number of constant social connections that human is capable of maintaining. This number is on average 150 contacts (100 to

The mass media compress the big picture of the world into an agenda consisting of a compacted horizon using a simple template: Politics/Economics/Culture/Society/Sports. The mass media editor fills out each section, even if the events are not top-rated. Filling out each section of the template is compulsory – and it is one of the remaining unique a

This thesis applies just as well to old media. Their worth is determined not by the value of their information, but by the absence of such information among their audience. They are interested not in the circulation of information, but in the shortage of it, because an information shortage in society represents the basis of old media prosperity. It

Paid content has no future not because people don’t want to pay or because there are no effective micropayment services. The reason is far deeper and more hopeless: the idea of paid content, at its very essence, contradicts the logic of network interaction.