Framing and Reframing

‘Stepping outside the frame’, rethinking the way in which we understand developments in media and the industries they sustain – that was this weeks objective and it begs the question; how do you even begin to identify and remove these frames? Frankly I don’t think there is any way to avoid a certain degree of framing when it comes to media and especially new media. The highly politicized discourse that surrounds the issues of publishing and distribution, driven by the economic and political interests of the key industry players, seems to always be reducing the possibilities of these radical developments in new media down to the issue of industry finances and economics.

If the hype is to be believed, new media are destroying these industries; whether it’s the music industry, journalism or print publishing, the argument remains the same and after spending the last two years studying a media degree, I’ve certainly heard my fair share of fatalistic warnings about my future (or lack there of) in these dying professions, perhaps none more so than in the music industry. But is new media really killing these industries?

It seems everyone has their own perspective, or should I say their own financial imperatives and they are all framing the debate accordingly. The record companies are worried about lost revenue, the musicians about how they are going to make a living and on the flipside; the pirates concerned with undermining the industry’s stranglehold on content and the downloader’s just wanting access and at no cost. The same can be seen in the journalism industry. Publishers are obsessed with their ever decreasing print sales, the journalists are worrying about losing their jobs, while the bloggers and citizen journalists are thinking about how they can capitalize on their audience to make a living and the readers are just interested in securing access to all of this content at no charge. Of course this is a rather simplistic overview, but the point remains valid; that much of the mainstream discourse surrounding new media and its potential seems to be caught up in the economics of the matter, the lost revenues of the traditional media heavyweights, and fails to really consider the true impact of these developments.

But if these industries are really ‘dying’, are we all just wasting our time?

Well I think it’s needless to say that I certainly don’t think so, or I wouldn’t be here in the first place. If you put aside for just a moment, this pathological concern with the economics of these industries, a completely different landscape emerges (and a much more optimistic one). With new media comes a flourishing and dynamic network of production, distribution and consumption. Setting aside the disruption or upheaval of traditional media industries themselves, the ability to create and consume content has never been more prolific than in the online environment.

Things may not be fitting so easily into the established hierarchies of these industries but the fact of the matter is that the value of these emerging networks cannot be measured by the standards of established industries. Maybe then, the solution is to set aside this notion of the media ‘industry’ all together. To ‘step outside the frame’ so to speak and start to understand the real impact of new media which goes far beyond their impact on the bottom lines of the record labels and publishers.