The Google YouTube Tango

THE GOOGLE YOUTUBE TANGO
[SOURCE: The Nation, AUTHOR: Jeff Chester]
[Commentary] Under the radar of all but the most savvy Internet users, powerful commercial forces are rapidly creating a digital media system for the United States that threatens to undermine our ability to create a civil and just society. A handful of companies now dominate much of the US new-media market. Five corporations -- Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T, Verizon and Qwest -- control the wires and cable lines delivering us broadband, digital TV and, soon, much wireless service. The takeover of YouTube by Google announced October 9 and the 2005 buyout by Rupert Murdoch of MySpace are not just about mega-deals for new media. They are the leading edge of a powerful interactive system that is being designed to serve the interests of some of the wealthiest corporations on the planet. Given this emerging marketing model, the US broadband infrastructure may well become one giant "brandwashing" machine. The most powerful communications system ever developed by humans is increasingly being put in the service of selling, commercialization and commodification. And it will lead to an inherently conservative and narcissistic political culture, in which the interests of the self and the consumption of products are the primary, most visible, media messages. And unless we begin to challenge it now, the emerging digital culture will seriously challenge our ability to effectively communicate, inform and organize.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061030/chester