And Yet More Again...

Readers can toy with changing the and my content in that last sentence to you and your if they share my dislike of these things - the people we have no interest in knowing about may well vary, but the point would be the same.

One way out would be some sort of legislation to outlaw the practice of media organizations cross-promoting their own content, making gossip and promotional material pretend to be news. It'd be wonderful if it happened, but it never will.

Alternatively, there's the possibility the internet-fueled fragmentation of the market will continue to the point where it's so diverse the big media players become irrelevant. In that wonderful brave new world there'd be the possibility you and I will be able to filter out large chunks of stuff that might be out there but holds no interest to us.

You can see the beginnings of something like that with services like Pandora, where you can develop what amounts to your own personal radio station, playing your own personally-matched playlist, something like having a giant iPod full of music that's been drawn from out there to match your taste.

It's not unreasonable to speculate that the same principle could be extended to all sorts of other content.

Given that state of affairs, I could create a world where, for instance, John Howard, Alexander Downer, Lleyton Hewitt, and Anthony Mundine effectively cease to exist, and the only time I hear about certain rugby league clubs is when they lose. It would be a world where sports news focusses on cricket and the AFL and basketball are totally alien concepts.

At least we can dream.

But when it comes down to tin tacks I think we'll end up with something at the other end of the spectrum as the big media interests buy up potential competition. I've even seen a suggestion that there will be attempts to turn the free internet into something resembling pay television - the sort of thing where your ISP supplies access to certain sites as part of your monthly payment and if you want to access anything outside that you'll pay extra for it.

I don't know whether that will happen, but I'm willing to take very short odds (say 20-1 on) that the bastards try.

© Ian Hughes 2015