CGM Redux

My post about Henry Copeland’s Immedia article is part of a growing discussion about what we call the loose collection of content creation and distribution tools now available to everyone. What is the term for all that can be done via blogging, podcasting, vlogging, social bookmarking (folksonomies) and the Long Tail?

I’m clearly in the Immedia camp with Henry, but there are dissenting views. Notably from Pete Blackshaw of Intelliseek, proprietors of BlogPulse. Pete coined the term Consumer-Generated Media and is loathe to lose it [In Defense of Consumer Generated Media] for some very solid and thoughtful reasons. Well, everything except for the “media” part.

Matt Galloway has some thoughts on the subject as well. He breaks down Consumer-Generated Media into it’s respective parts and finds the term in it’s entirety to be perfect for the task at hand.

I think Matt and Pete make good points if your audience is in the boardroom and you need to sell them on this new world order. But I think CGM fails when I, as a blogger, look at it.

I’m no ‘consumer’, I’m a customer.
I don’t just mindlessly consume, I choose to purchase and view.

My blog isn’t ‘generated’, it’s written.
Sometimes I wish it were simpler, but it’s not.

I’m not the media (at least not when I blog), I’m an individual voice.
Media, to me, suggests the architecture of distribution (the cables, satellites and such) as much as it does the message. Since no one owns the internet, and certainly no committee runs this blog, I don’t think of this as media. A blog, sure, but media seems way too pretentious for a humble blogger like me.

This is the new participatory culture. It’s happening right now as I type.

CGM, for me, is too clinical to capture the ethos of what we’re all doing. It might work in your PowerPoint, but not for the revolution (or the tattoo you get next week).

Immedia is where it’s at.

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