"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure." --Thomas Jefferson, 1823.

How would Jefferson feel about today's national media? When we read the newspaper, turn on talk radio, or flip over to cable news, do we get something that conveys this "force of public opinion" that Jefferson talks about? Maybe on a really good day. But most often, mainstream news depicts the world according to spin doctors, journalists, commentators, editors, their corporate bosses, their corporate advertisers, people who write press releases... and so on. so forth. Not exactly a cross-section of America, now is it? But as our media routinely fails to reflect the full spectrum of public opinion, they also fail to meet Jefferson's very definition of a free press. And, without a free press, he would regard the waters of our political system to be impure. He'd tell us, in short, that if we don't do something about our flawed, unrepresentative media, America will, in effect, be choosing to give up being a free society.

If Jefferson were here today, he would surely see internet media as our last best shot at preserving the Republic. He'd recognize the democratic, collaborative nature of internet culture as a sound basis for fulfilling the promise of a truly free press, and thus, an agreeable version of the 21st century. He would likely urge us to develop viable business models for producing and delivering diverse web-based media -- business models upon which we can build a new kind of media system. A diversity-friendly system, strong and compelling enough to replace what we now call mainstream media.

Fortunately, just such a new media system has been developed right here in Humboldt County, and is ready to be implemented! The Folk Media Society, a proposed new "social enterprise" company, offers a viable, detailed strategy to dramatically shift media away from divisiveness and domination by the powerful, and toward diversity, inclusiveness, and, yes, freely-expressed public opinion. That may sound like a big claim, but we're confident our plan really can deliver these results.

The strategy provides for a radical re-ordering of the ways in which media producers, audiences, and advertisers interact with each other, so that power becomes spread out widely, rather than concentrated in the hands of large media corporations. The Society would establish a set of entirely new business models that will allow small-time media-makers, if they're any good, to succeed independently, and become part of a vibrant new independent media industry, apart from 'Big Media.'

The Folk Media Society can catalyze a transcendent shift in human communication for the better, make very tidy profits, and create the backbone of a newly-vitalized local economy. As Humboldt County becomes a major hub of the emerging independent media industry, countless creative, high-skilled, "green" local jobs would result. In fact, a positive transformation of Humboldt's economy is part of the Society's mission.

This document outlines the Vision underlying the folk media plan, starting with a snapshot of today's failed media system to demonstrate the sheer necessity of the changes we propose. The Society seeks business alliances and partnerships, which will be necessary to carry out the plan. It's hoped that enough of you local movers, shakers, and media-makers will be inspired to join this potentially lucrative and world-changing effort.

Thanks!
Paul Benson
Founder, Interim CEO, and CVO of the Folk Media Society

P.S. -- To avoid common misunderstandings, please know that:

• we do not focus exclusively on journalism and news. We aim to empower all types of independent media-makers, not just reporters and commentators, because creativity is just as important to a free society as ideas and information are.
• we are not seeking to replace media professionals with media amateurs. In fact, a key focus is to help media pros become more successful, more independent, and to become the leaders of the new media system.
• we are not a politically-oriented enterprise. We seek to empower all independent media-makers, regardless of their ideas, politics, or opinions.

Mass media is how humanity communicates with itself. And just as poor communication within a family can lead to domestic violence, divorce, and other tragedies, so can a poorly-designed media system lead to tribal resentments, border disputes, slavery, and international war. Whether on the level of family, community, nation, or world, good communication is key to good relations. If there is ever to be a stable peace on Earth, you can bet that there will also be a fair, diverse, and well-designed media system. The more each person, tribe, political party, or nation feels their concerns are properly addressed in media, the more likely that disagreements will be resolved before violence has a chance to break out.

Unfortunately, no such system has yet been built. Even in the United States, considered the leader of the free world, our media lacks true diversity, is dominated by the powerful, and is becoming increasingly divisive and partisan. Too often, media leads Americans to feel it's better to hate those we disagree with than to seek a deeper understanding of them. Slowly but surely, we have moved away from civil discourse toward such a deep mutual distrust that, unless we learn to talk things out better, we could soon find ourselves in a new civil war, or worse.

To heal the distrust, we must better understand each other. And to understand each other, we need a better-designed media system, that doesn't play favorites or thrive on divisiveness and conflict. We need media that maximizes diversity, decentralizes power to level the playing field, and allows all opinions a fair chance to be heard and understood -- even those views that the elite would rather keep suppressed.

We now stand at a historic crossroads, with a stark choice between two competing paradigms for how humanity communicates. One path is to continue with the old ‘top-down’ model of media, or 'Big Media,' as it's often called, and the other is the newly-emerging ‘anywhere-to-anywhere’ model, or what's sometimes called 'New Media.'

In Big Media, creativity, ideas, and information flow from the top down, as this model consolidates virtually all the power at the top, under strict hierarchies headed up by chief corporate executives. American media has long been dominated by the Big Media model -- that is to say, by a small number of very large corporations (such as Viacom and Time-Warner) that together have held a firm lock on both production and distribution of "mainstream" media content. In order for anyone to get any sort of idea, information, or burst of creativity across to the public, she would very likely have to do business, in one way or another, with a gigantic media corporation, that would act as a middleman between her and her prospective audience. If you want to ‘make it' in this paradigm, you'll need a CEO or someone under his or her authority to ‘give you that big break.’

In the New Media model, on the other hand, communications flow not just from the top down, but from anywhere to anywhere. This fledgling internet-based paradigm allows content to be produced virtually anywhere by virtually anyone, and then to be delivered to virtually anywhere, instantly and at little-to-no cost to the producer. In this model, artists and communicators need not wait for a corporate representative to ‘discover’ them before sharing their messages and talent with the world.

These two models for mass communication are obviously very different. Although both paradigms will likely continue to exist, one of them is bound to dominate over the other once things shake out in the years to come. So which way we will go? Will we allow Big Media to prevail, leaving us falling ever-deeper into a pit of stifled possibilities, where the bounds of who gets to say what publicly are predetermined by powerful elites? Or, will we create a renaissance of human expression and creativity through New Media, where a free flow of ideas allows not just both sides, but all sides of each debate to be included? We, the people alive now, are the ones who will make that choice. Through our investments, political choices, and our media consumption habits, we will all participate in the decision over which model of media will prevail.

Whatever you think about Big Media, it’s clear that their dominance is under threat by financial troubles, the rise of internet media, and a widespread distrust of mainstream media by the public. But it goes really much further than distrust. Many Americans also have a profound distaste for what Big Media offers, often describing it as ‘shallow,’ ‘sensationalized,’ ‘celebrity-obsessed,’ ‘uninformative,’ ‘partisan,’ ‘biased,’ ‘dumbed-down,’ ‘uncivil,’ ‘lewd,’ ‘manipulative,’ ‘hypercommercialized,’ and the list goes on. Big Media is turning off the public, and so, the public is increasingly turning off Big Media and looking instead to alternative sources of news and entertainment on the internet.

In this troubled economy, as many newspapers are failing, people are wondering if the next round of taxpayer bailouts will be to prop up media companies deemed “too big to fail.” The reality is, they are too big, they are failing us, and their undoing is their own doing.

NOTE ON LOCAL MEDIA: Thanks to many great local outlets, and perhaps to our low population and "off-the-beaten-path" location, Humboldt's media are still unusually independent of Big Media's power. We propose that Humboldt actively uses this advantage to help turn the tide outside of Humboldt away from Big Media as well.

The Dawn of ‘New Media’
Like the dinosaurs, who were replaced by small but more versatile mammals, today’s corporate media giants are, for the first time, forced to compete with myriads of small media producers who independently distribute their content to the world on the web. The power of mass communication, once held so securely in the hands of the giant corporate middleman, is now being spread out far and wide, into the hands of growing millions. The modern web-connected computer is putting an ever-more massive number of communication possibilities at the fingertips of those millions. Even audiences are vastly empowered in the New Media world. Unlike the options of yesterday’s consumer, limited to shouting at your TV screen, changing the channel, or turning it off, consumers of online video routinely participate in the success or failure of the content they watch by rating it, commenting on it, or by popularizing it through an ever-growing list of sophisticated viral distribution tools.

All this may sound like old news, but take a moment to consider the
full implications of this new media paradigm.

If we project ahead and assume these trends continue, the power will continue to be decentralized, and it will soon become clear that we're in the midst of a quantum leap in the development of our species. While Gutenberg’s printing press represented a monumental shift of communication power to the masses -- a shift that brought on a world-changing revolution in human thought and freedom -- that was a minor development when compared to a world where virtually everyone has a chance to get a word in edgewise, in the medium of their choice!

How to Complete the Revolution
A genuine possibility is within reach of a more free and fair media system that excludes nobody from the public conversation. This is no time to think small! It is not enough to wait for existing trends to topple the reign of Big Media. Although much power is already wielded by growing millions of small media producers, this has not yet become a self-sustaining trend, and their power is provisional at best. To bring on a lasting paradigm shift toward a decentralized media system that could endure and thrive in our free enterprise economy, small independent media must become truly competitive with Big Media.

This can be done. Although such media Goliaths as Disney and News Corporation may seem like insurmountable adversaries, there are millions of 'media Davids' already hard at work, creating unique, noncorporate media, at a time when Big Media are already quite troubled and off-balance. All that's left for the 'perfect storm' to sweep in a true revolution in mass communications is a well-organized new business model that joins these millions of indie artists and communicators together into a thriving new independent media industry.

There are numerous methods that the Folk Media Society intends to employ in transforming today's explosion of 'mom & pop' media shops and media hobbyists into a competitive new industry, but the centerpiece of our strategy is simply this:

MAKE INDEPENDENT MEDIA PRODUCTIONS BETTER!

So how can one organization set out to improve the production values of myriads of shoestring media projects so they can compete with Hollywood's typical multi-million dollar budget? Again, we have numerous methods in mind, but two major pillars of our strategy are shown here:

The Folk Media Society Vision
Imagine this Vision has already arrived. Imagine that you as a media creator have a simple way to bring together competent and creative production teams, and that despite your low budget, your team has access to state-of-the-art media equipment. Once your team has produced a piece of media, imagine being able to easily distribute it in a way that brings in profits. Expression of your creativity plays out on your own terms, so there's no pressure to 'sell out' your creative vision or to sign away your career to become a pawn of big business. You and your team decide what goes into your production, how it's distributed, how the money is to be made, and how the team splits the profits.

Now, imagine an entire independent media industry made up of highly-networked small businesses and individuals who all have these sorts of benefits available to them. This new industry essentially amounts to a whole new media system, based on a wide distribution of power among media-makers and their audiences. This new system offers audiences a truly rich diversity of ideas, information, and creative angles, without being filtered through a corporate content-selection process. Here, there is more great media than ever to choose from, and it comes from every walk of life. There is a wide new diversity of online publications, radio stations, and TV channels that compile content to suit virtually all possible audiences. People are far more likely than ever to hear a new point of view, and to understand and respect this new perspective. There's really no need anymore for big media institutions to decide which talent is 'ready for primetime' and which isn't, because in this new media ecosystem, audiences decide for themselves whether a piece of media is worthwhile. Here, good media, in effect, distributes itself by pleasing the crowds enough for them to help it 'go viral.' Neither artists nor audiences would even tolerate a big corporation trying to mediate our public conversations, because the thought would strike us all as patently absurd. Here, a consumer of media content can instantly talk back to the creators of the content, and to other audience members. In fact, an audience member can just as well pick up a microphone or a camera, and share their own thoughts and creative outbursts with the world. And, if they're any good, they can make money at it. This new paradigm even empowers small businesses by offering better access to advertising slots in rich media environments like audio and video. Finally, imagine the profound local economic benefits as a result of Humboldt County being at the center of this new industry.

Ready to Launch!
The Folk Media Society has the course toward this new media system plotted out! Specific projects, creative strategies, and innovative services have already been identified and conceptually developed that we believe will not only decentralize and diversify the media of the future, but also bring great rewards and profits to our partners, associates and investors. We believe the Folk Media Society may even become the most influential media company on Earth!

We are ready to start establishing this company, bringing together a team of the finest talent and savvy business minds that Humboldt has to offer. We wish to form a broad alliance of local businesses, freelancers, financiers, nonprofits, "sweat-equity" volunteers, and others to form a remakably resilient business entity that's up to the task. Humboldt County is an excellent place to spark a historic advancement in human commnunications! And perhaps you yourself are destined to be an integral force behind this advance.

Want Details?
As you can imagine, we're eager to share the Plan with those who can help make it happen. However, due to the very sensitive nature of a strategy that would upset the balance of power in media, it's necessary to maintain strict confidentiality of the Plan. In order to ensure that our Vision is not co-opted, watered down, or otherwise neutralized, we must require anyone exposed to the details to first sign a confidentiality agreement. While such secrecy may not be in step with local culture, it is standard procedure in founding a start-up company, and assures a greater possibility for success for those who invest their time and resources in it. If you're interested and ready to sign the agreement, please contact us at the email address below.

We're especially interested in sharing the plans with those who can offer business management skills, start-up capital (or help getting it), legal guidance (especially pertaining to business formation), financial guidance, advanced programming skills to develop web-based applications, web-design, marketing, video production, as well as help from motivated individuals to help out with clerical and unskilled tasks. We believe that there should be a broad and diverse base of power to this organization, so we want to allow many ways of buying a stake in the company, including with labor.

Step up, Humboldt!
Carrying out this Vision will only be possible with a concerted effort from many enterprising, skilled, dynamic, accomplished, and talented local individuals and businesses. If the Vision sounds appealing to you, but you're skeptical, get in touch to hear the plan before you write it off as impossible. Your lack of involvement might be the one thing making it impossible!

Contact Paul Benson by e-mail at citizenmediaman AT gmail DOT com to learn more about the plan. Please include some information about yourself.

Sincerely,

The Folk Media Society
& TVHumboldt.com

All content of this document, including the trade name "Folk Media Society," Copyright, Paul Benson, 2009. Information herein describes a vision of the Folk Media Society (TM). The scenarios described herein are not intended as promises of any actual results, but rather a summary of the author’s current vision of, expectations for, and intentions for, this enterprise.