Toronto Mike

Blurring the Media Lines

Notepad

The media lines continue to blur.  I know this because I have a great view from where I sit.  As a blogger with some Google juice, I've seen first-hand a dramatic expansion of the term "media" the past six years.

The traditional media are the journalists who write for newspapers and magazines or radio and television reporters.  The new media consists of bloggers and web personalities who publish content that is only available via the internet.  More and more marketers are reaching out to this new media, seeking web-based exposure that includes an additional and significant SEO benefit.

I've been given free concert tickets, theatre tickets, movie tickets, a ten-day Ford Focus test drive, Easton apparel, iPod skins and media seats for Walking With Dinosaurs, all in the past couple of years.  Tomorrow I'm taking my daughter to a media-only preview of a new Disney animated feature.  Next week I'm taking my son to the media box to watch the Marlies game.  XM Canada will soon be giving me an XM Radio MP3 player and a year's subscription to the service, just so I'll review it.  And unlike the cell phone I turned down a couple of years ago, I won't have to give this back.

This is my hobby.  I blog because I enjoy the exercise and, as an emarketer in my 9-5 gig, this is an ideal way to keep my ear to the ground and see where things are going in the world of SEO and Web 2.0 initiatives.  I find the recent push to blur the lines of "the media" fascinating, and so long as it remains fun and includes some decent swag, I embrace it fully.

I just wonder how the traditional media folk feel about a dude like me encroaching on their turf.  When Disney starts to recognize members of the new media, you know it's gone mainstream.

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