Two great movie quotes from the golden age of media keep coming back to my mind … “Who are those guys?” (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” (Network)
Why so? Well, they speak to me not only of the chasm of alienation (the “otherness” if you will) that is growing between Big Media and the mobile networked consumer, but also the impression of this consumer actively pulling away from prescribed content, brand messaging and anything at all that isn’t, well, 100% on their terms.
A number of excellent thinkers in recent years have taken on the intimidating challenge of helping us a) to understand who those guys are and b) why we/they are mad enough not to take it anymore.
Why isn’t the old model working, how could we reconnect with this lost consumer? Above all, can we stop obsessing the technological and commercial issues, and turn our attention to where value is really being driven, to the social and cultural drivers of Media 2.0.
The New Economist: Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks
Benkler’s weighty and ambitious 2007 masterpiece (the bold title of the book harks back of course to Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations) digs deep into the dynamics of what he calls “non-market” value creation (of which User Generated and Shared content is perhaps one of the more simple examples). When the means of production and distribution are free, and when open source culture continues to swell, what are the Big Implications for world commerce. If you’re feeling less than robust, a good idea to pay someone else to read this one for you.
The New Utopian: Pierre Levy, Collective Intelligence
Ah, the French point of view! Always refreshing, always quotable, wildly ambitious, quite frequently wrong … and always guaranteed to upset somebody. (A good thing in itself, I’d say.) Think Baudrillard, think Foucault, think Derrida and dozens more. While clearly off the same style farm, network visionary/sociology professor Pierre Levy’s passionate, smart and very comprehensive look at “just how far we could go” in the era of social networks is a powerful antidote to the (now thankfully dwindling) tsunami of Web 2.0 lunacy
The New Populist: Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody
Now in paperback common language work of genius that manages to do what no one else here has done … to bring the subject of social network value and cultures to life for the ADD-tinged colour supplement readers among us. I fell in love with the title before I even considered buying the book. Probably the must-have in this list, or at least a very good starting point for deeper inquiry.
The New Marketer: Grant McCracken, Flock and Flow
Marketing is no longer the fluffy job it used to be, and the no-nonsense NY-based consultant Mr McCracken takes as his key premise the pivotal Road Warrior (back to those movie lines again) quote, where Mel Gibson (formerly known as Mad Max, now … OK, don’t go there) drawls “You wanna get out of here? You talk to me.” Flock and Flow takes on the fierce task of describing how and why market dynamics now create such challenges for brands, and a manual for how to stay ahead of the curve. An astringent and ballsy work that you need to buy, if only to make sure he writes the next one.
The New Sociologist: Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-identity
With the exception of the next work listed here, the oldest publication. But Lord Giddens’ insight into the touchpoints between self, society and new technology remain to my mind unsurpassed. If you want to know why ringtones are more prized than MP3’s ever will be, but don’t want to read any more about ringtones, MP3’s or anything to do with mobile content (and I’ll bet you don’t …), read this book. Slowly. Sorry, no pictures either.
The Old Master: Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media
I’m still startled at how many folks in our line have managed to reach maturity without reading the work that started it all in 1964. If you find yourself in that endangered species, I won’t grass you up. But do something about it sharpish, OK?
The Shameful Plug: Bayler and Stoughton, Promiscuous Customers, Invisible Brands
Published in 2002, still more or less holding its own as a manual for digital value creation.
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