Om Malik on Broadband. The Me in Media started, not with TiVo or weblogs, but with the remote control, argues Christine Rosen in her fantastic essay, The Age of Egocasting. As consumers, we expect our television, our music, our movies,

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Wayne E. Yang

Thanks for posting this Christine Rosen piece, Om. I think it’s interesting that she specifically uses the word “fetish.” Of course, a phenomenon of the explosion of media is how it makes niche content viable. What does it mean, though, when that niche devolves to the “power of one,” imploding towards the ego? The vast majority of bloggers are essentially writing for themselves (a digitalization of the old vanity press) or, at best, a small circle of friends and family members. Does this mean they primarily seek self-/reconfirmation, to see how well their thoughts and interests resonate? The studies that show that political sites tend to overwhelmingly link to sites that share their own political views suggests that people are often satisfied to sit within the echo chambers they devise.

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Doc McClenny

i detest false comparisons that show lazy research. Haven’t journalists heard of fact checking?

Only a small minority of homes currently own DVRs—about four percent, according to marketing research firm Knowledge Networks. As Advertising Age recently noted, this means that “more homes in the U.S. have outhousesâ€? than these devices.

But 20 seconds of researc shows…
http://www.mainetoday.com/census2000/news/020714outhouse.shtml

The number of year-round homes without complete plumbing fixtures declined by 40 percent between 1990 and 2000, according to new figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage of homes with incomplete plumbing declined from 1.6 percent to 0.9 percent.

So in reality, we have many more DVRs than potential outhouses. The DBR statistic also ignores the rental of DBRs through cable TV suppliers.