New media don't replace old media — but they might as well

It’s a cliche that “New media don’t replace old media”. However, this ignores the massive disruption new media do cause.
Think about what TV (and then FM) did to AM radio. The movies were changed profoundly by television–twice. First, they moved to big screen production in the fifties and then to action in the eighties. Cable pretty much made the broadcast TV networks irrelevant and set them up for acquisition.
This kind of disruption may preserve media, but destroys the companies that control them.
The next media scheduled for disruption are compact disks and newspapers.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.