People of the Internet

With the internet’s transition from a communication-oriented invention to an ecommerce driven invention in the late 1990s, it was only a matter of time before the communication aspect of the internet took the forefront yet again. Media is use and consumed by everyone who lives in a first world setting with access to television, newspaper, and internet. Big media companies look to maximize profits by channeling the media that they output through certain outlets, therefore making it filtered and a pay to use system. With this in mind, companies like Facebook and YouTube strived from the very beginning to be about the consumer and make it so that the big companies would no longer have control over what you are viewing, listening to, or watching. This idea of media accessibility can be seen them in motto for YouTube towards its beginning, “broadcast yourself”, or the idea that everyone no matter your status can have the ability to put yourself out there for the world to see. This was a great a idea that came at a time where big media companies were looking to throttle the content that they were distributing, in an attempt to make more money.

One version of media, music, was targeted in the late 1990s and earlier 2000s by a small startup company named Napster. Napster revolutionized the idea that media, like music, should be accessible in more than just one channel, which at the time was just the record labels. Napster led the way for companies like YouTube to become media giants regarding music, video, and consumption of media through outlets other than big-wig companies. They were able to break the distribution monopolies that record labels in the music industry held and made the labels very angry in the process. This was the new wave of media, and it was going to take over whether the rich record label executives liked it or not. In the end, Napster had little backing, monetarily speaking, and were soon sued and forced to shut down their operations. However, this would not stop more and more websites like Napster to rise and take its place.

With Napster in the past, companies like YouTube and Facebook sought to take advantage of the new way of media that they were witnessing. YouTube seized the opportunity to allow users to “broadcast yourself”, while Facebook rallied on the idea of connecting people together for a better information flow and exchange. Although companies like Myspace posed a challenge to Facebook initially, in the long Facebook was able to outlast and survive the initial competition, which lead to the company growing to absurd proportions. As for YouTube, the founders were able to sell the company in 2006 to Google for around $1.6 billion, and the platform was able to explode from there, making it the media powerhouse it is today.

All in all, media consumption has had many changes over the past few decades and thanks to the development of the internet big companies are no longer in control over information and media flow, or so we think. While the internet has made many great changes to society it has brought about some interesting villains. In today’s market, Facebook has grown to become an empire, but this came a severe cost. The company, some would say, lacks integrity and is straying away from its original purpose. While YouTube has not changed all too much purpose wise, the content restriction and enforcement has become a bit of a problem in recent years. Only time can tell where these giants are going to end up next.