Media

The Wealth of Networks Yochai Benkler

Chapter 1. Introduction

How information, knowledge and culture are produced and exchanged critically affect the world.

We have relied on the Ð'ÐŽÐ'§industrial information economyÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё to do this

We are undergoing a structural shift in how we produce and share information

-individuals take a more active role

-the shift threatens the incumbents of the industrial information economy

Emergence of a Networked Information Economy

Since the mid 1800s, information and cultural production required very large investments in physical capital (printing presses, broadcast studios, etc.), hence, could only be performed by large corporations.

Therefore information and cultural production took on an industrial production model - high fixed cost, low variable costs, central control or production and distribution

The physical capital required is now spread through society (think of how Napster used people hard drives as the servers for music files)

2 mega-shifts taking place:

1) Shift to an economy based on information and cultural production and the manipulation of symbols (as opposed to an economy based on industrial production of ptoducts).

2) A communications environment based on cheap processors that are interconnected Ð'ÐŽV this allows for non-market production of information and cultural content Ð'ÐŽV this non-market production will be at the core, not the periphery

This means a new networked information economy is displacing the industrial information economy Ð'ÐŽV characterized by decentralized individual action Ð'ÐŽV carried out through non-market mechanisms that do not depend on proprietary strategies.

The declining cost of computers and network equipment makes this possible

Now human creativity and the economics of information itself no longer have the constraints that were in place in the previous era.

Non-market, non-proprietaty production Ð'ÐŽV media content is now increasingly being done this way, which has been common with education, museums, academic research, in contrast to the industrial production model of market-based content that parallels how consumer marketing firms operate.

Consider a Google search and how the results of that are a function of the input of a wide and diverse range of participants who have a variety of motivations Ð'ÐŽV some market-based, others not.

Much of the interaction and sharing of content is done by people who are acting socially, not as actors in the price system

We are seeing the rise of large scale cooperative efforts, typified by open source software, wikipedia and the like Ð'ÐŽV these represent a new mode of production

The outputs of this vast network are not treated as exclusive property as they are in the old system.

Enhanced Autonomy

The networked information economy allows people to do more for themselves, to share more easily in communities and to operate outside the market sphere. People are less dependent on commercial mass media, hence people are less subject to manipulation by a narrow and legally defined class of owners of communications content and infrastructure.

This should result in more diversity of perspectives.

The Babel objection is the concern that when everyone can speak, no one can be heard.

Note that any analysis of this effect must compare it to the tightly controlled mass media world it is replacing, not a utopian view of perfect communications.

Mass media has severe limitations

Ð'ÐŽV it has a limited intake