What's In, A Name?

A Lot

Happy Hump Day War & Peaceniks!

Before I go on, I must say that the outreach I’ve gotten since I came out as cancerous in my post last week has been nothing short of overwhelming. I cannot thank you enough for the support and love I’ve received. It’s meant more than I can possibly articulate in English. So, in short… ♥️

Ok, then… Let’s stop and smell the dinosaurs.

I’m fresh off a keynote at the International Broadcasting Convention, on my way speak to the Royal Television Academy, and getting ready for a speech at the National Association of Broadcasters.

At these and other events, my addresses center on the new era of Media in which we have arrived. We are not headed there, we won’t be there soon, we are there:

The User-Centric Era of Media. 

Right now, consumers program their own Media Bundles with their phones and remotes. They want fewer garden walls. They want easier discovery. They want seamless transitions from one platform to another, without having to jump through friction filled hoops created by inertia and greed.

I’ve written all about that here. And here.

Yet we, in the Media, cannot seem to get out of our own fucking way. The case study for that is the silly way we name things. Layers upon layers of names, based on technical or legal definitions, that may have had meaning or relevance in the previous era, but only now serve to confuse everyone - even us!

Our naming conventions are a symptom of a much larger problem. We, The Media, don’t share a common language with our audiences. We poll consumers about their attitudes towards our media, with terminology that confuses literally everyone, even the pollsters. 

So, here then, are my Top Nine Names we need to change or kill, in order to make sense of this new era of Media: