Is everyone really a network?
O.K. Lets assume, as the always insightful Jeff Jarvis has written, that "everybody is a network." "The conversation is king" et cetera. A corollary would be that distribution is cheaper and the barriers to entry are lower with digital tech; so leverage shifts to the content producer (or more specifically copyright holder) and away from distribution...but, what about advertising cost? In a global market, increased competition has lowered the cost of production but creative costs (from design, to marketing, to advertising) have increased significantly. Greater competition means a greater need to differentiate oneself from the glut… If everyone is a network, will these content producers really reap the benefit of their copyright vis-a-vis the traditional network model? Is the advertising model that works in this scenario dependent on viral marketing? How about sustained creativity for anyone individual in the mass of Internet content producers? High quality content takes time and time is money for those not independently wealthy? Doesn’t one need economies of scale to spread risk to maintain creative output et cetera? Won’t media firms (MTV FLUX, YouTube, and MySpace in this case) ultimately reap the benefits of copyright….? Who makes money?
