Changing Business Models: Clay Shirky on why media is a triathlon

Last weekend I was watching Costas NOW on HBO and heard a tirade against blogging like no other. Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights unleashed a fury against Will Leitch, editor of the popular sports news site DeadSpin.com. From bloggers' writing skills, to their ethics deficiencies to their lack of credentials, Bissinger believes our moral fiber is in jeopardy because of the dearth of consumer-produced sports media. “I think blogs are dedicated to cruelty, they’re dedicated to dishonesty, they’re dedicated to speed,” Bissinger said.

To his credit, Leitch managed the attack with grace and dignity but he didn't hit a homerun with his response. He had a chance to address mainstream media's genuine fear and suspicion of the blogosphere's influence. What he needed was a dose of cognitive surplus.

I just watched BIF research advisor Clay Shirky's talk at the Web 2.0 Expo. In his speech, titled Gin, Television and Social Surplus, Shirky nails it when he says “media that’s targeted at you but doesn’t include you, may not be worth sitting still for.” And like it or not, Shirky's conclusion includes sites like DeadSpin.com.

From Shirky's speech: "This is something that people in the media world don't understand. Media in the 20th century was run as a single race--consumption. How much can we produce? How much can you consume? Can we produce more and you'll consume more? And the answer to that question has generally been yes. But media is actually a triathlon, it 's three different events. People like to consume, but they also like to produce, and they like to share. And what's astonished people who were committed to the structure of the previous society, prior to trying to take this surplus and do something interesting, is that they're discovering that when you offer people the opportunity to produce and to share, they'll take you up on that offer."

There's a lot of complexity right now in the media world but Clay is clearly on to something when he says that business models which don't include consuming, producing and sharing will not make it in the future. As he says in his speech, "this isn't the sort of thing society grows out of. It's the sort of thing that society grows into." That's a motto for systems changes anywhere.