Everybody talks about content. Content marketing, content strategy, ... "content is king". That may be true, but rarely someone talks about the actual content of the content. I've recently noticed that I was a content producer long before the term even existed. Before the advent of the internet, you were a film- or a video maker, you were a photographer or a writer, or, in my case, all of the above. But I was never a "content producer". Because if you are labelled a content producer, it strangely takes the content out of the content. What you produce does not matter in terms of quality, it only matters in terms of quantity. As long as you produce something - anything - that's good. Feeding the machine with your "content" is your newly designated role in the platform economy of big tech companies. The new layer of control needs you, of course, but it does not ask what your content actually contains. Ok, it wants (or needs) to know if it's a sound file or a picture or a text or a video. But nothing beyond that. Sure, there are huge benefits. Now your content will be out there, it doesn't stay in your bottom drawer, no - it will be published. Big time! You get views, clicks, eyeballs. No questions asked. Strange, because before, it was all about what you had to say (or not). Now, nobody cares. Social Media tycoons say, they don't want to interfere with "free speech" etc. Sadly, that is not true. If they had their way, anyone would be allowed to post anything they please. Porn, rape, murder, whatever. The more the better. Because it's "content". And it brings revenue. For them, not so much for you, though. But you get eyeballs, the new currency they have invented for you. (The money goes to them) If you still think, it's great that there are no hierarchies, no central command, think again. A network is like a spider's web, but there are no spider's webs without a spider that uses it to catch its prey.
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AuthorThomas Behrens Visual Communication is not only taking part in the digital transformation - actively and passively - he will also reflect on it. Hence the blog. Archives
January 2021
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