That headline is a rough paraphrase of one of my favorite quotes from William S. Burroughs. It cuts straight to the heart of the struggle between traditional media and new media. Once you place this filter on the world, the seemingly self destructive actions of the largest media companies is no longer a mystery but an obvious extension of their lack of autonomy from their own architecture.
Gerd Leonhard is blazing the trail with his writings on End Of Control. He covers the basic theory of how and why it is happening and a glimpse into both the current state and clues to where this post-control word is heading. Many of these ideas are captured anecdotally in Erick Schonfeld’s article on TechCrunch.
The Washington Post seems to think that the studios are getting the message. The headline “In First for Studios, Paramount Offers Snippets of Movies“, shows the lack of understanding on both sides. From the Reporter’s side, that this is somehow interesting or news worthy. Paramount offering snippets is just another example of the control first mentality of traditional media. The more profound realization is that these snippets have been there for a long time. Not only that, without the control of the studios, they have flourished into better marketing vehicles than any control obsessed executive could ever imagine or admit.
So, here is the dessert portion of the menu. One of my favorite youtube collections from Barringer82. His fan edits are authentic and full of craft in only the way a true fan can create. Here is a small snippet, if you will, of what studios are giving up by listening to control.
