Niche Markets
A trend ongoing since the creation of print is for niche markets. Target audiences though small, become very specific. When only several television stations were available, there could not be a history channel; no gardening or news stations-and especially not music television. The net takes this growth to unheard of levels. The difficulty is with providing content. As production costs decrease, as demand and expection is lowered to the point where hobbyists can entertain-niche markets will grow exponentially.
This is one reason that I believe censorship is not needed. There is no need to worry about prime time programming using sex and violence when there is no limit to prime time programming. Mass media and advertisers may wish to limit market access so as to have a generalized audience to target, but this will not always be possible. Eventually programming can be accessed on demand on very specific levels. This is especially true when copyrights run out (if the FCC ever stops extending protection for unused media) and we can host streaming media from the 50’s-70’s via our webpages/servers.
Either standards viewers demand is lowered, or the tools necessary to produce good content become affordable and easy enough; the end result will be the end of mass media-and the birth of niche media.
