Internet vs. Power and Dominance of Television

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RESPONSE:

1. Discuss whether or not the growing use of the Internet as a source for information, especially among professionals, is impacting the traditional dominance of media power in the leading television networks. Minimum 250 words

There appears to be ample evidence that the growing use of the Internet as a source of information, especially among professionals, is impacting the traditional dominance of media power in the leading television networks.

First, an on-line search provides tons of evidence that the Internet is indeed challenging television networks, and expects to be the leading media soon. See the article below Internet challenges television networks by Hansell in the New York Times (October 5, 2005), which supports this idea that information from the Internet (e.g., blogs, new networking, companies like ThePlatform make software tools for Web publishing, and online advertising firms are selling video ads. etc.) will soon be number one dominance of media power.

Example 1: Article

Internet challenges television networks
By Saul Hansell The New York Times WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2005

NEW YORK In 1999, a mysterious Web site helped make "The Blair Witch Project" one of the most profitable movies of all time. Now Daniel Myrick, the movie's co-director, is making a television series called "The Strand of Venice," and its Web site will not only promote the series, but will also be the place where people watch it. "It is now possible to distribute high quality programming that has been produced by much smaller entities," said Jeremy Allaire, founder of BrightCove, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, Internet company that helps small video producers create, distribute and finance video programs. The 50-minute pilot of Myrick's series, which is set in Venice, California, is available now to watch free at http://strandvenice.com/. Future 30-minute episodes will cost 99 cents each. "With Blair Witch, the Internet was a force in helping us in the marketing department," Myrick said. "Now BrightCove allows us to take a show idea, produce it in the spirit of a network series, but keep everything in-house and publish it ourselves over broadband." Already, there are more than a million video clips available on the Internet that can be viewed immediately, called streaming, or downloaded for later viewing. A recent survey by Forrester Research found that half of Internet users now watch video online.

BrightCove is being joined by a rapidly growing list of companies that want to cash in the trend. Start-ups like Blinkx and Akimbo also want to distribute video content. ...