Episode 2.10 Vaporised Media with Rob Tercek

Returning guest Rob Tercek shows how software turned newspaper into web pages – vaporising business models that kept us well informed.

In his 2016 tour-de-force Vaporized: Solid Strategies for Success in a Dematerialized World, Rob looked at how software replaces hardware.

Printing presses are hardware. Newspapers – they’re hardware too.

So what happens when something vaporises? Here’s Rob:

We’re living in a time of vaporised media – and we got here suddenly, with no preparation, or any clear plan on how to make this work for us.

How do we stay well informed as news organisations find their dollars taken instead by search engine giants Google and Facebook?

Rob talks about “the Gerasimov Doctrine” – using the collapse in the media to wage a sort of covert war against a government – and here’s an article Rob recommends in this episode, exploring that whole topic.

Also highly recommended is the Peter Pomerantsev book Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, about how this has become the new reality for Putin’s Russia.  Read more in this article from The Guardian. 

Listen here — or on iTunes.