Joi Ito has a post on Narrowcasting, which is the production and distribution of niche media to small highly targeted audiences. The technological advances in printing and on-line publishing is making this possible and I am very skeptical of what the future holds if the trend expands unchecked.
Narrowcasting is just beginning; soon the Internet will enable narrowliving. Narrowliving is where you are able to filter out every single opposing position to your own form the media that you consume. Essentially individuals will be able to refine their own intake of media to a point where their own beliefs, no matter how skewed, are constantly reinforced by the media they are exposed to. Narrowcasting a'la FOX is already legitimizing and reinforcing the points of view of conservative Americans. Soon media will function as an ideological yes man. This has the potential to be very bad.
Comments