The Economist Survey of New Media

Last month, The Economist published a detailed and insightful survey of new media, covering the details of new technologies such as blogs, as well as the social and business implications of these technologies.

Wev’e gotten a lot of very positive responses about the survey, so we thought we’d point out some of the highlights you might have missed. (If you just want to grab the whole thing as a PDF, the survey is available for $4.95.)

The survey starts with the assertion that “The era of mass media is giving way to one of personal and participatory media”, in a piece called “Among the Audience”. The article starts with a review of the invention of Gutenberg’s movable type, and then continues into some background about our own Movable Type. Though it’s flattering, it’s probably slightly overstating the relative importance of both inventions. Here’s the highlights:

In 2001, five-and-a-half centuries after Mr Gutenberg’s first bible, “Movable Type” was invented again. Ben and Mena Trott, high-school sweethearts who became husband and wife, had been laid off during the dotcom bust and found themselves in San Francisco with ample spare time. Ms Trott started blogging—ie, posting to her online journal, Dollarshort—about “stupid little anecdotes from my childhood”. For reasons that elude her, Dollarshort became very popular, and the Trotts decided to build a better “blogging tool”, which they called Movable Type. “Likening it to the printing press seemed like a natural thing because it was clearly revolutionary; it was not meant to be arrogant or grandiose,” says Ms Trott to the approving nod of Mr Trott, who is extremely shy and rarely talks. Movable Type is now the software of choice for celebrity bloggers.

The most cogent point follows shortly after that, simply stating that this innovation “[A]lso marks the beginning of a very gradual transition to a new era, which might be called the age of personal or participatory media.”

Once you’ve reviewed the introductory story on blogging, you’ll also want to check out “It’s the Links, Stupid”, a strong overview of how linking behaviors in the blogosphere enable conversations and relationships. This focus on conversation does a good job of explaining why most blogs are aimed at an audience of fewer than ten people, not for hundreds or even thousands of readers.

Aside from blogging, there’s many other topics covered in depth in the survey. Participatory journalism, wikis, podcasting, virtual worlds like Second Life, and the very definition of a media company are all explored. The survey closes with a high-level view of participatory media, along with a useful list of sources and acknolwedgements. If you’re not completely overflowing with information by that point, a number of audio interviews augment the writing, including ones with survey author Andreas Kluth, Technorati’s David Sifry, Wired Editor-in-Chief and Long Tail maven Chris Anderson, renowned new-media thinker Jerry Michalski, and prognosticator Paul Saffo.

In all, it’s a great overview of the field many of us work and play in, and it’s also a perfect professional introduction to these technologies and culturall changes. If you’ve got a friend or coworker who still doesn’t take blogging and related media seriously, spend the five bucks, grab the PDF, and send it on to them.