November 30, 2004
horizontal media
Blog-Mogul Nick Denton speaking in The Independant:
“Weblogs are just websites that happen to be arranged in reverse chronological order,” the 36-year-old Denton explains. “They have the characteristics of honesty and humour and they speak to audiences at their level, not from on high.”
The phrase “not from on high” got my attetnion.
Not-from-on-high media, non-hierarchal media.
i.e. non-vertical media,.
i.e. “Horizontal Media”.
Media that operates on a flat, non-hierarchal plane etc.
(Apologies for the repetition. I am incompetent.)
I like “unmediated media”. Which may be self-cancelling, which is also fine mit moi. I like “media” almost as little as I like “content”. Do you even need media when you’re zero distance from the other party? When you’re together in a place that’s a place because absence of class and distance obviate the need for mediation?
Ooops. Paul, I think I deleted the wrong comment by mistake.… Sorry. Feel free to repost etc.
Hmmm… I don’t mind the word “media”.… I really don’t like the phrase “The Media”, though.
Horizontal isn’t eactly right, tho. The playing field may have been level 3 or 4 years ago, but these days, breaking in is nearly impossible, unless you’ve got something special about you (special expertise, particularly brilliant wit, what have you). It’s a meritocricy, which is completely fine, but it’s also a bit entrenched. In the political blogs (the ones I read the most), there’s a dozen or so major sites, and almost no upstart is going to break into that group without pulling off a minor miracle.