Limited Edition
FREEDOM
In media and marketing terms we are all revenue-earning units. Quantity is the currency of a mercantile world, but appallingly poor stuff is defended on the basis that ‘it’s liked by millions’. Are we becoming a collective mass suffering from pathological depthlessness? Is this the precious freedom of expression past generations died to bequeath us?
In fact, on television and radio, in newspapers and magazines, decisions are taken every moment without considering what people most want to hear. Media bosses blame diversification and fragmentation for loss of audiences. But in an information-rich, brand-sophisticated, web-enabled world, people are quite right to use their freedom to demand more of the media they consume. Will major corporations embrace the risk and rise to the challenge?
Consumerism that finds no satisfaction in quality should be a thing of the past. It is time for the media to grow out of its current obsession with celebrity culture, and the worst of ‘unreality tv’, and start working towards more substantial, relevant content.
Let’s reclaim the media spaces: they belong to us all.
Laura & Damian Santamaria
Editorial directors