07-02-2018, 12:22 AM
(07-01-2018, 11:06 PM)AarG Wrote: The retail "apocalypse" as Mr. Howe terms it - yes, we've had recessions, and iconic brands disappear before, but I have a feeling those were almost trivial compared to the economic sinkhole brick & mortar retail is turning into, as rents climb, but revenues fail to keep pace. Obamacare will get a lot of the public/political blame, but stagnant (or falling) revenue is the arterial wound that keeps bleeding.
The podcast re-invention of the medium formerly known as "radio" - and without a scintilla of government oversight, for good or ill. Like the sharing economy, this is an outgrowth of the smartphone revolution you already mentioned, but it's also matured into its own industry. This will contribute to a decline in OTA listenership, especially as that space gets flooded with political advertising for the mid-terms and next presidential election.
Social media can make one his own broadcaster, at least of radio-style reach. The technology of radio broadcasting is now inexpensive except for over-the-air broadcasting, the latter highly regulated for the protection of existing broadcasters. But could one be one's own disc jockey, especially if one has an automated website? Self-broadcasting on the Internet could become as inexpensive as ham radio -- so long as one ignores re-broadcast rights. So suppose that for most of the time my Internet channel plays classical music (ideal for automation, as I could pre-record music introductions and exits) and decide to be the "new Larry King" in prime time. I hope, of course, that I do not become the new Allan Berg, the confrontational radio host who riled up neo-Nazis and was assassinated.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.