Mark Cooper, Consumer Federation of America, spoke this afternoon at Beyond Broadcast about creating new business models to support social media. He noted that everyone is presenting a business model based on charity or advertising. Mark contended that social media has to be based on civil society. Distribution is not the problem, attention is the problem and monetization is the problem.
The old media have been pushing content at us for so long they came to believe we were mute couch potatoes. We need to provide platforms for individuals to speak to other individuals. We also need the other traditional broadcast model. We still need quality journalism, good editing.
Mark talked about moving beyond subscription towards about membership. Members decide what they want and how to get it. People will pay to participate in producing content.
Some people argue that the government should be supporting public media. Mark noted that you can’t speak truth to power on power’s nickel. You can’t rely on public moneys for social media.