No David, Social Media Won’t Kill Culture

Social media won’t kill culture.

First: Fuck you, David.

I bought a paper copy of Esquire today and turned to page 26 (yes, that’s how many ads I had to get through before reach­ing the edit­or­’s note). 

There, the edit­or David Granger writes that the “treas­ured assump­tion of the digir­ati” was that the digit­al revolu­tion would cause the end of record labels, book pub­lish­ers, and movie stu­di­os. “But it did­n’t, ha!”

“The dis­in­ter­me­di­ation,” he con­cludes, “is free­ing tra­di­tion­al media out­lets like Esquire, enabling us to expand our horizons.”

That’s all well and good, David. 

Traditional media out­lets must adapt to digit­al-first — or fade away. However, when tra­di­tion­al Mad Media Men and the Copyright Mafia yelled at the top of their lungs, “Social media will kill cul­ture, and journ­al­ism will die,” we said:

“No, that’s not how this digit­al stuff works.”

Social media can­’t kill cul­ture.
Social media is culture.

Second: Culture won’t die (and journ­al­ism won’t either). New rev­en­ue mod­els are emer­ging out of the ashes — exactly as we, “the digir­ati,” pre­dicted. To our point, the inter­net has proven to be an amp­li­fi­er of human cul­ture, not a destroyer.

So, let’s set the record straight.

What happened was that record labels, book pub­lish­ers, and movie stu­di­os com­plained and moaned. But in the end, their whin­ing fell on deaf ears. And so they were forced to adapt.

Exactly like we, “the digir­ati,” pre­dicted.
And tra­di­tion­al media hated us for it.

For the largest part, the digit­al­isa­tion of soci­ety will be a good thing for human­ity — pos­sibly also allow­ing Esquire to “expand its hori­zons.” And I’m pleased that Granger feels the need to acknow­ledge this, even as late as 2011. 

Never too late for a change of heart, right?

So, in the spir­it of change, hear us this time around. Traditional media is still down for the count, but instead of being humble, don’t try to rewrite his­tory in your favour. Since Esquire gives advice on how to be a man, let me return the favour:

If you’re going to take cred­it, be a man and make sure it’s yours to take.

Best regards,
Jerry

ps. The Gutenberg galaxy is not com­ing back:

The Electronic Age and Digital-First

Human cul­ture is often described based on our access to pro­duc­tion tech­no­lo­gies (i.e. stone age, bronze age, iron age). 

Still, accord­ing to Marshall McLuhan and the Toronto School of Communication Theory, a bet­ter ana­lys­is would be to view soci­et­al devel­op­ment based on the prom­in­ence of emer­ging com­mu­nic­a­tions technologies.

Marshall McLuhan sug­gests divid­ing human civil­isa­tion into four epochs:

• Oral tribe cul­ture. Handwriting marks the begin­ning of the end of the oral tribe cul­ture. The oral tribe cul­ture per­sists but without its former prominence.
• Manuscript cul­ture. Printing marks the begin­ning of the end of the manu­script cul­ture. The manu­script cul­ture per­sists but without its former prominence.
• Gutenberg galaxy. Electricity marks the begin­ning of the end of the Gutenberg galaxy. The Gutenberg galaxy per­sists but without its former prominence.
• Electronic age. Today, we reside in the elec­tron­ic age. Likely, we haven’t yet exper­i­enced this age’s decline yet.

The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962) is McLuhan’s mass media ana­lys­is, pop­ular­ising the term glob­al vil­lage.

As a PR pro­fes­sion­al and lin­guist, I sub­scribe to the concept of the elec­tron­ic age. My line of work’s main point of ana­lys­is is that soci­ety is unlikely to revert to the Gutenberg galaxy.

The PR industry must adapt to digit­al-first. Why? Because the Typographic Man is not mak­ing a comeback.

Read also: Digital-First is the Way

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