Tech Is Eating Media. Now What?
Any industry sufficiently powerful to absorb the fourth estate is worthy of its scrutiny. This is not quite a paradox. It is disorienting. And suddenly urgent. Tech is consuming the media.
But let’s back up.
Our most vocal and visible tech leaders — the proselytizing venture capitalists, the reluctantly famous founders and CEOs — are at turns brash and assured. In the first mode: they call attention to a problem; they declare war, on behalf of consumers or customers, against the industry enforcing it; if they’re able to gather momentum, they set their sights higher and talk about disrupting not just industries but ways of doing things. In the other: having dominated in their particular domains, they find themselves, suddenly, in a position to dominate others; with capital and confidence as tailwind, and maybe even a sense of responsibility, they apply their particular brand of disruption to everything they touch. They expand. Of course!