Bruce, Are you Media?

At the recent Cadillac CTS-V Challenge there was plenty of time during the day to network and visit with other attendees.  Even for an introvert like me, this was a bonus of the day, and I met several interesting people.

Normally the conversation would go “Introduction / Reason for being here? / Discussion”.   So, my side of the conversation might be

“Hi, I’m Bruce Nunnally from Caddyinfo.com”.

“Yes, we’re a Cadillac enthusiast website that provides information and discussion about Cadillacs”.

One Gentleman asked me, “So you’re Media?”

to which I haltingly replied, “Well, I don’t think of myself as Media”

Gentleman: “But you are.”

Which of course, got me to thinking about the whole Media issue.  The entire Cadillac CTS-V Challenge was a ‘new media’ event.  This was not a Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Road & Track Event.  This was Jalopnik and TTAC and Bloggers and Twitter event.  Lots of us were Tweating along the way,  and shooting photos right out to a website or right to a twitter photo service so that readers could see the event happenings close to real time.  This was a Media 2.0 Event.  TV, Speed Channel and CNN is the exception — they were the classic Media at the event.

Not only could I get info out to the web, I could also keep up with what the other participants were commenting about the event in real time.  So the Event definitely had the beginnings of augmented reality.

Media.  I don’t think I WANT to be Media.  To me Media represents a paradigm of unilateral communication.    The town cryer yelling out the news, with no participation from the crowd.   I want a dialog with my readers.  Just as I enjoyed the networking opportunity at the CTS-V Challenge event, I want to have a chat with other Cadillac enthusiasts or other car nuts just because we share a love for the automobile.  Interactivity and conversation, not publishing via whatever media and a mute audience with no means to respond.

But maybe that is Media 2.0 — commentary that invites access, discussion, and interactivity.

1 thought on “Bruce, Are you Media?

  1. I know what you mean about not wanting to be media.

    I like this paradigm from lawrence lessig about sharing culture:
    old media was read only, but new media is read/write.

    I always want to be read/write.

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