Although there has been much speculation on whether or not the country’s economy is in a recession or just in flux, consumers are going to discover smarter ways in buying when they need to make a purchase. The slowing market will force consumers to become more educated about their options before they pull the trigger. In order to do so, consumers will continue to become more discerning and research the best prices and reviews on products before they spend. They will flock to web sites where that information lies. Social networks where community recommendations on the best and worst products as well as customer service will continue to thrive in a market where buyers are more cautious to buy on impulse. This increase in behavior shopping will also drive competition for bargains between big box stores and online sites. People hesitant with trust or even knowledge in the online marketplace will find themselves exploring search engines and online stores before they plunk down change at the nearest store. It might mean that they merely visit the url’s of brand stores they already associate with in their behavior but they will certainly do price comparison. We will probably see a growth in older coupon behavioral shoppers that don’t want to wait until the Sunday paper. While traditional ad spending may take a hit this year, it should be interesting to see how the online market does as consumers become more savvy with their money that should give a boost to online marketing power. Increased consumer online buying, when rewarded with savings, will further solidify into their future buying behavior.
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After hearing a snippet of the banned keynote speech by Tim Robbins last week, I can understand some people’s frustration towards network news. Having worked in an owned and operated CBS affiliate, I have seen the difficult balance that broadcasters play. It is important to note that most journalists I have had the pleasure to work with are truely dedicated to providing quality news stories, and do. Many great news stories are written every day, they just never air. The problem with today’s news is you the viewer. Say again? Let me step back for a moment if and try to follow me. Like everything in broadcasting, advertising funds the production of news. There is no billionaire financier throwing money at news. News has to stay competitive to survive. Because nielsen ratings drive the value of a network’s airtime, viewership is imperative to the station’s survival. The number one age group of consumer spending is 18-34. These age groups are mostly fascinated with stories that revolve around hollywood. In general, it is also easier for a station to get people to watch the local brownie troop 142 get a cat as a mascot then bloody gang violence where most of the footage is unsuitable for broadcast. It is also easier to watch, for some, Britney Spears make a fool of herself then the death toll pictures in Africa. Media buyers know it and would prefer to follow softer news than harder news. Face it, you find yourself unable to pay attention for a few moments after a difficult story airs that shakes your psyche for a bit. We’ve all seen network news struggle to find the right chemistry with six figure anchors that can make and break the competition’s stride. Salary pay continues to be competitive. I never met a professional journalist arriving to work eager to report a story of Paris Hilton crashing into a tree. You like those stories. Maybe not all of you - I certainly don’t care, but I have friends and family that find it entertaining. You can change covered topics if enough of you just refuse to watch. People are watching this smut - which means viewership - which means money to fund news for next month. Stop watching it. Refuse to watch any news that doesn’t meet your standards. Broadcasters will listen. They want you to care as much as they do about good journalism. They can’t do it for free.
There is a convergence in media today that happening but has not quite taken a polished form. You might have heard about internet citizen journalism growing in popularity. The problem is that these streams can be easily lost in the endless world of RSS feeds within the internet. Consumers have to know where to look in order to find the media. Podcasts for example, which use RSS feeds are great but again, you need to subscribe to the feed in order to get updates. If I could imagine the greater use of the future internet is the ability to move within clouds of data with user voted page ranks and trusted source ranking. Have I lost you? Let’s imagine there is a breaking news story where a fire breaks out at a nearby factory. The media breaks the story with a reporter on the way to the scene. Meanwhile, a person near the scene begins a streaming video from their cell phone with a cloud tag of: breaking news, factory, fire, Chicago, north-side, Broadway & Addison, Date, Time. The media could immediately be alerted to the stream and start feeding the source. A bulletin would be broadcasted: is this a trusted source? - with a page rank alerting the status of user submissions. News media uses phone call-ins frequently for this but a connection needs to happen between the two parties. Another video stream opens covering the scene with a higher trusted rank and now you can have more coverage. While you’re listening to the broadcast, you click on the history of the factory with articles on prior news that extends to that area’s neighborhood history. The user has more control of how much or how little they want to learn.
Let’s takes that same concept and apply to a network where an aspiring journalist or even a concerned citizen records their own account, and after editing the media could submit it to multiple feeds within the internet and broadcast channels for them to review and publish in parallel. If the network decides not to broadcast it, you still have he option to float to the other media articles for more information. All of this comes from recent media management software that opens the accessibility of information. Although the big networks may at first shy away, the need to stay competitive in today’s market may lead to this adoption. The benefit for the larger networks is that they could also get a higher visibility from the smaller social media as well.
When I worked in broadcast news, we had thousands of archived news stories on tapes with a database to source that information. Now with new media management tools and a tapeless workflow, there is greater access to a larger network of media for better information. The next step is opening that access further into the internet pool of relevant, user submitted experiences for greater insight into our world. A tapeless world is just the first step. Capsulized media is on the brink of non-existence, as we once experience it. When we get there will be determined by both the consumer and the networks.
This is just one example of the de-regulation of media and can even apply to consumer generated advertising and social consumer shopping as well. It’s going to be an interesting future when you stand back and look at the larger picture. Will the larger players sit back and wait for it to happen without their support or will they embrace it with open standards? Let’s hope for everyone involved, it makes for a greater knowledge and user experiences.
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