A link from JD Lascia’s New Media Musings took me to an EContent article titled Rich Media is Hard. In it, writer Walt Crawford makes a telling point: creating effective rich content is hard and, for the moment, that gives the edge to those who know how to do it well.
For now, pros have the edge when it comes to truly rich media. I think that edge will hold for a while just because rich media is hard—and there’s too much of it out there to tolerate badly done amateur stuff for very long. It’s an edge; make the most of it.
That makes sense. While there may be something compelling about some of the user generated content that is becoming ubiquitous, it is the well-produced and well-executed stuf that’s going to command the bulk of the attention.
As easy as it is to blog, there are a limited number of blogs (although it is a large number) that are worth reading regularly. The same goes for video blogs and other multimedia content. I notice it in my own podcast listening: almost half of what consumes my weekly “ear time” is podcast versions of professional content.
Reading the piece, I was struck by the thought that you can replace the phrase “rich media” with “journalism” and get the much the same result. Producing consistently good journalism is hard work and it is there that “old media” has the current edge over much of the blogosphere and the other new news initiatives on the internet.
Note, though, some of the wording that Crawford uses in the ending to his piece, particularly this:
I think that edge will hold for a while just because rich media is hard—and there’s too much of it out there to tolerate badly done amateur stuff for very long. It’s an edge; make the most of it.
I’ve added the emphasis to pull out two parts to the message that some may be tempted to overlook. The advantage media has is an edge, not an overwhelming superiority. And it’s an edge that media will continue to hold for a while, not forever.
We’ve already seen the development of alternative news voices where the hard work is being done (sometimes in new ways) and, as the technology changes and the job of doing consistently good journalism becomes easier, the edge big media now enjoys will inevitably get narrower and narrower.
