The future.

Possibly, there is no more of an intimidating topic.  Most people think about themselves when contemplating the future and although overwhelming, most can dig through self doubt to find a sunny ending. In the case of media issues our environment is much more opaque.

When contemplating the future of media in relation to the theories of this course, two specific topics jump out; Reality and Big Politics. The reason for this is because they seem to be the two that will have to be rethought more vigorously by the common person than any other category.

Media is used to be a medium that facilitated personal expression of one’s reality OR as a tool to guide people about the changes in their environment (on behalf of governments, businesses and other institutions). It is because of change in technology and thereby the social and cultural use of media that both of these areas will be equally reshaped.

For example Jane McGonigal (<http://janemcgonigal.com/>) explores how her expression of reality changed because of the virtual technology in gaming which allowed her to be more collaborative and productive in a competitive and goal achieving environment. If social trends are reflecting a move toward gaming and the values that it comes with then so must the laws of communications (government) be altered to suit the changes to the new media ecology and forms of practices.

Once laws are in place, media can physically implement a platform of change (ie access to behind the scenes content), but also play a big role to get other institutes and independent opinion makers to cultivate practices that encourage adapting to the ‘futuristic’ communication styles wanted by the community. This may also include questioning which community (if a community can even be defined) they advertise to, and especially how; be it radio, ads within videos, or as holograms only visable with special glasses.

In conclusion, technology is a transversal and frame that changes big institution practices and media practices so that people’s experience of reality and communication are altered which in turn affects every aspect about community formation and the state of other ecologies.