Internet Won't Kill Traditional Media

Adam's Apple

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Apr 25, 2004
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Nation’s Newspapers Won’t Be Slayed by Internet Bloggers Anytime Soon
By Jonah Goldberg for New Hampshire Union Leader
May 10, 2005

Some smart “netrepreneur” should get to work on a parody song titled “Bloggers Killed the Newspaper Star.” The original MTV generation will get the reference to days gone by when the network ran strange things called “music videos.” The first video MTV ran was “Video Killed the Radio Star.” If you haven’t noticed, that didn’t quite pan out. Radio surely has its problems, but it’s still around.

Meanwhile, MTV is now basically a “lifestyle” network, running programming remarkably similar to that of PBS, A&E and other “adult” — in the non-porn sense — networks. Sure, MTV packages its wares differently, but if you can look past the exposed navels, pierced faces and butt tattoos, you’re less judgmental than I am.

But, seriously, MTV’s programmers are basically recyclers: The network’s vast wasteland of reality shows for wastoids, including “Pimp My Ride, " “Trippin’ “ “Punk’d,” and “Cribs,” are hardly path-breaking. Networks have been running shows about cars, homes, exotic travel and practical jokes for 50 years. (Does no one remember “Candid Camera?”) For all their radical chic, MTV’s fans are just like the past generations they so desperately want to transcend.

This should serve as a cautionary tale for those who are betting big on the doomsday scenarios being peddled about the implosion of the newspaper industry, as well as to those who await the triumph of the so-called “blogosphere.” The more the media seems to change, the more its underlying patterns keep reemerging. There’s truly nothing new under the sun.

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showfast.html?article=54498
 

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