The Great Upheaval

Here's a great talk about media consumption and theater and where we're all headed.

Cameron is extremely enthusiastic and articulate despite being a bit inaccurate at times - which the comments after the video call out. He is also quite optimistic, but it should be noted that this optimism is the luxury of a person with a steady paycheck. The cultural upheaval he describes is viewed differently by those whose livelihoods are at stake and who must navigate these troubled waters in order to survive. Those people who are leaving the theater because they can't make a living there any more are most likely not so sanguine about the changes.

I like a great deal of what Cameron says here, but the other thing I find troubling is his easy mention of the way in which current technologies are allowing amateurs to act as professionals. When this happens in theater this phenomenon is upsetting because it decreases the number of people who can make a living at the art form. That's upsetting, but it's not threatening. This same phenomenon, applied to journalism, IS threatening. As professional journalists are displaced we have fewer and fewer people who investigate injustice, hold power accountable, etc. Horsey's recent cartoon sums up the problem nicely.