Saturday, August 4, 2012

Intermission: House of M's Bleeding Edge

Thanks to the Technopriests, Unifi is back up again at my place. For the past two years, I have gone through almost every single defect and problem this thing has.  The problem this time? My wireless thingy on my PC needs to be set and reset periodically to match the Unifi router.

Strangely enough, my Unifi predicaments reflects my own position and circumstances in my journey through the media industry.

I have spent the past year plus exploring various aspects of the media industry which I have never bothered before. This is what I wanted, really, as I have gone through every one of the sectors and disciplines I was ever interested in. The only thing I never touched was radio because I was never much interested in the platform. Nothing wrong with it, but since I don't drive, I don't listen to it.

I often make fun of the dinosaurs of the industry - the big, slow, lumbering beasts of the media world waiting for extinction. Their skills and knowhow made obsolete, their styles becoming irrelevant in a brave new world of chaos and fart jokes. But if they are dinosaurs, I am just one of the early mammals.

Fairfax Media's firing of 1,900 people over the next 3 years, their shutting down of an entire printing plant seemed to me like an extremely clear indication that things are changing faster than I thought it would.

I believe that the old values will still remain true and relevant. Good writing, good content, a clear direction, will always win the day. Because everything is still communication. However the packaging, the platforms, the business models will all have to change.

I do not believe that journalism is under fire, but the support structure around it is. Marketing, advertising, the means to get information and messages to consumers.

I hope it is, because my shit is all tied to old school stuff. I was trained by those people anyway, and I am merely a native on the Internet.

I never wanted to be on the bleeding edge of technology or the media, but the companies I work for are somewhat on the forefront of things. They are trying new things and exploring uncharted waters. Me? I'd just be happy to do two stories and fuck off.

However, I always end up too deep in things. Which is cool, because learning new things means my own private meteor of irrelevance will be slowed down a bit.

I recently re-ignited my passion for writing, though, and my own hunger for seeing projects completed. I still haven't changed from that kid in 2003 who was always worried about stories.

We shall see where everything goes in my House of M series.

For now, though, there is porn, and in porn we trust.