I wrote about Mastodon the other day. Here's the piece I wrote on ZDNet :
http://www.zdnet.com/article/is-mastodon-the-new-social-media-star-or-imploding-black-hole/
I'm impressed with its growth and stability so far. I'll be watching closely as brands try to work out how to monetize this new audience
@eileenb As @woozle noted, when epistemic (media) systems gain significance, the attract attention:
"Because of a high percentage of the population being present, there is now substantial power to be had by influencing the discussions that take place."
Or more accurately: as there are /returns/ to influencing an audience, those influencers will appear: direct & brand marketing, propagandists, polemicists.
So yes, the brands ... will come, like it or not.
@woozle @eileenb I see a fairly common progression of interests within a new media channel. Not necessarily in the following order, but close:
1. Technicians -- "shop talk"
2. Artistics and creatives, avant garde.
3. Organisations for internal use: business, government, academia, religion, etc.
4. External comms, management, monitoring, discussion.
5. Direct marketing.
6. Mass entertainment.
7. Mass marketing.
8. Propaganda and polemicists.
Merely changing platforms changes nothing.
@crecca See Elizabeth Eisenstein, "The Printing Press as an Agent of Change", or McLuhan's "The Gutenberg Galaxy".
*Absolutely* new media changes culture. Massively. And has, going back to language and speech themselves. Writing /literally created civilisation and history/. The printing press split the Catholic Church, lit off the Renaissance, sparked the 30 years war, and lit the fire under science.
Fascism relied on radio, cinema, and loudhailers.
Eileen Brown ☑️
Doc Edward Morbius ❌
Rafał Piątkowski