Imagine there is no Internet

October 26th, 2004

In the materialistic world of commercial media, it is nigh-on impossible to follow the late John Lennon's instructions and imagine "no possessions". But as an alternative parlour game, many media execs like to play the watered-down version: "imagine there's no internet, it's easy if you try".

Wrote Emily Bell in her opinion piece for the Guardian
Bells's piece articulates the seismic impact the internet has had on

what we strangely still refer to as "mainstream media".

Newsprint media gets most of Bell's attention. As she notes the growing disquiet at News International, especially as the predicted rate of newspaper sales over the next 20 years will be more significant than the ability of newsgroups to generate revenue from the internet.
But Bell moves onto "Big Media", observing how its credibility and coersive power has been eroded by bloggers. The outcome of this is that once the communication it is now two way. Perry de Havilland a blog guru says

Communities of interest are forming and people are talking about you, the good, the bad and the ugly, so you need to join the conversation yourself or be conspicuous by your absence, or you will soon have no one to talk to.

From SMLXL's embracing the digital age report.
Today we live in a very different world, where business models are ripe for innovation, the internet is one of the forces at work that have the potential to profoundly disrupt many businesses.
Bell sums up,

the calculation for "big media" is not simply a financial one: if you remain in denial about the web, then you are sitting at the edge of a rising tide wondering if swimming lessons might not have been a good idea. The newspaper and publishing industries are grappling with these difficulties already, with varying degrees of aptitude and success.
But for those who continue to wish the web had never happened or that it will somehow melt under the weight of a malfunctioning economic model, it might be a good moment to contemplate a possession-free future.

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