The Internet: Just Another Medium

By John Malmo

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-915114.mp3

The Internet: Just Another Medium, by John Malmo

Memphis, TN – Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. It was too good to be true that we ordinary consumers could get on the Internet and swap all kinds of unbiased, first-person data and recommendations on everything from clothes and restaurants to vacation sites. It was only a matter of time before clothing brands and retailers would start paying young girls to wear their merchandise and tout it on the Internet. No matter how fascinating and how flexible the Internet is, it's still just another communications medium.

And every communications medium began kind of naively and semi-commercially. Then, as time passed, it became more and more commercial. And users of the medium become guarded and skeptical. As the Internet, too, becomes driven by advertising, shills and ringers become the norm.

Already, if you don't personally know with whom you're communicating on the Net, how do you know they're not on somebody's payroll? Recently, I read an Internet piece by an assumed credible individual who predicted that bloggers will save journalism. I don't know about you, but some of the blogs I've read are more opinionated diatribes than how I define journalism. I like to think that people will come to their senses and become more sophisticated in their selection of media. Then, hopefully journalism, too, will survive without bloggers.

John Malmo is a Memphis marketing consultant with more than fifty years experience. He is former chairman of Archer Malmo Advertising and specializes today in helping small businesses grow. To reach Mr. Malmo - or to buy a copy of his book When on the Mountain There is no Tiger, Monkey Is King- go to http://www.johnmalmo.com.