More commentary on Ofcom’s recent publication…Today, I’ll briefly examine ‘Our changing media ecosystem‘ by John Naughton of The Observer. Bad title — too obvious and sounds like one of those social science films you had to watch in school when you were 13…

Naughton starts his essay by describing the changing media and communications landscape and observes how ‘we are living through an upheaval’. He makes similar observations that almost lapse into a form of historicism or generational exceptionalism. But he is sufficiently aware of this danger and does not take it too far.

Naughton thinks society lacks a useful discourse to make sense of this new environment. So, he borrows the concept of an ‘ecosystem’ from science. He writes:

What I want to do is apply the perspective to human society: to treat it as an organism that depends on a media environment for the nutrients it needs to survive and develop. Any change in the environment - in the media that support social and cultural life - will have corresponding effects on the organism. Some things will wither; others may grow; new, mutant, organisms may appear. The key point is simple: change the medium, and you change the organism.

Mutant organisms? It’s an interesting perspective - but let’s face it - this type of analysis only pays off if it delivers a better understanding of the situation. I’m not sure Naughton carries this off. He does offer an interesting analysis of how new forms of media are changing our lives, but it’s nothing I haven’t read elsewhere. Naughton describes the changing media and communications environment (disruptive, liberating, dangerous) in an orthodox manner, but he only adds his ecological contributions sparingly and superficially.

Naughton finishes with an interesting question about how business and regulators will adapt to the new environment he describes. He says that businesses that do not adapt will ‘vanish from the earth’ (this is not entirely true from an ecosystem perspective - I have a WorldCom mousepad somewhere) … and claims that ‘[t]he big question is whether the same holds for regulators’.

With this last point Naughton hints at another theme he explored recently when he predicted the demise of Ofcom. I’m not convinced. Regulators, broadcasters, advertisters - they all seem to be doing just fine. Look at YouTube lately - the U.S. broadcaster CBS is all over it.

Maybe CBS is in the process of mutating?