Digitalwall: Media, Community, and Blog (1) The Beginning of the Story

If you think this is something new, then you are very wrong.

[+] Is it a new breed of media or same old stuff in new packaging?

One day, I saw a Chinese ID on MSN. The literal translation of that ID would be "new breed media." Out of curiosity, I just could not but ask where it came from, and found out that it was the Chinese title for a newly published English book, "We the Media."

My response was a bit cynical. I said to him that it sounded like some new breed of bubble. My friend, the ID owner, is also a forerunner in the Internet business for some eight years. His only reply to my sarcasm was a burst of laughers.

For those who haven't gone through the complete journey from boom to burst to boomlet of the Internet industry, they may not be able to understand how we daring Internet vanguards feel. The big dream of new media, power from the grassroots, the power of decentralization to resist against traditional media domination, media of and by the people, and a more just society….

If you think the trend of "We the Media" (some say "civil media" or "republic media") headed by Blog is a completely new idea, then I'll need to beg you to forgive my bluntness.

I say, whatever is in your mind had been in our minds before. Though we might not always find the answers, but the sharing of experience may help you avoid detours and save some time in groping your way out. So I would like bring up the history again here.

[+] Talking about history

In 1993 when the Internet was just to make an appearance on campus in Taiwan, I was writing web pages using HTML. Back then only a couple of students at my school had an email account. In 1996, there was the book "Megamedia Shakeout", which foretold the massive impacts of digital media on the telecommunications and media industries. I took it as my bible and read it over and over.

In 1998, we saw the rise of the portals, which had made quite a few college students young entrepreneurs. This new business, which claimed to be prospective new medium surviving on online advertising revenue, never spent a dime on hiring its own journalists. All the news content was transplanted from traditional media, or we could say, second-hand content.

In 1999, we saw the emergence of online communities. These website operators were thinking that, since content provision was expensive, why didn't we let the online users to take care of it? That was why we saw the appearance of a vast quantity of forums, personal newsletters, and communities composed of schoolmates or people sharing common interests. The website operators then turned to see themselves as platform providers.

In 2000, there was the closing down of the first pure Internet newspaper in Taiwan "Tomorrow Times," which hired a large number of in-house journalists to produce its own news content only for the Net. On hearing the news, I was so upset that I put on one big Chinese character of the meaning "morning" on the homepage of my website "digitalwall.com," with white text on black background, a classic color design used for funeral affairs in ethnic Chinese societies.

In 2001, the bust of Internet bobble continued to give hard time to the industry. Portals found out that it was impossible to survive only on advertising revenue. Then we saw Yahoo! in the U.S. which took the lead to declare that it would bring down the ratio of revenue from advertising and strive to create revenue streams other than from advertising. Some wondered what kind of media company it is if it does not need to rely on advertising revenue?

In 2003, Microsoft announced the closure of MSN chatting room worldwide, with the reason that it was close to impossible to manage the unchecked spreading of pornographic messages. Well, anyone who had some idea about what's going on knew that it was because running an online community was expensive in terms of bandwidth cost. Moreover, it generated the least advertising revenue (anyone who's engaged in chatting would not care a bit about advertisements.) Porn was but an excuse; the real purpose was to drive the cost down.

In 2003, the online advertising market revived with strong stamina, but there was no one in the business who would like to rely solely on advertising revenue any more. Even the newspapers which suffered the most from the rise of the revolutionary Internet, their Internet subsidiaries had to explore additional income pipelines as well, such as to sell something online, offer ringtones or pictures for download in mobile phone.

In 2004, the emergence of Blog stirred yet another round of discussions on the possibilities of new media, which is why we saw the publication of the book "We the Media." We were not surprised to find that the Blog wave started from the campus, and that in the beginning the most enthusiastic Bloggers were students. Reporters thronged to interview these rising stars....

[+] The nature of media can never change

Now you may be able to understand why I teased my friend about the new breed of bubble. I absolutely agree with every one of you that the forms of media are changing, but I have very big questions with the saying that "the nature of media is changing."

There is no change in the nature of media. A media company, as any other business under the capitalist system, is constantly under the pressure to make profits. This does not change. You might have the ambition to start a revolution in the beginning, but when examined by investors in every detail, you would be forced to do quite a few things that you didn't want to.

The short review of history above outlines the development of Internet media and online communities, with one single point highlighted: it costs too much to produce content exclusively for the Internet, which makes it very unattractive. The cheapest way is to let Internet users produce the content. Blog, to a certain extent, coincides with this idea.

Here we see three issues. Firstly, why is the cost of pure Internet content so high? I will give an explanation to this question that nobody ever tries to answer. Secondly, what about the quality of the content generated spontaneously by Internet users? Lastly, why is it unlikely to support an Internet media company solely by online advertising revenue?

I will explore the nature of Internet media from these three dimensions, and at the end talk about the possible appearance of the currently so-called new media that may be revealed after the investigation. I would like to see the prosperity of Blog, but if you think this is something new, then you are very wrong. (
2005/03/06 - By Digitalwall.com - Way to
China Internet/Telecom )