In 77 tweets and less than six months, the shitmydadsays account at twitter (http://twitter.com/Shitmydadsays) has built a following of 833,941...that's less than 200,000 short of the New York Times daily circulation. Just as significant is the fact that the audience actually signed-up for the author's content - a daily, profane, comedic reflection on life, 120 characters or less in length. What does it mean? Well to me it's an impressive example of the traditional media paradigm being turned on its head. It also means that creating content and reaching sizeable audiences is within the reach of the average joe...barriers to entry into the media game are now insignificant. You can buy a domain name, wordpress hosting account and Flip Camera for under $300 and start a video blog that could reach millions...this is a new media reality that I don't believe has fully dawned on environmental and social groups (some of the social actors who's work could benefit from this change the most). Disconcertingly (and requiring a future post) is the fact that the Global Warming denial machine has seized upon these tools effectively to extend the "conversation" questioning the science of global warming...they've figured out that simply making noise keeps their issue alive in the media sphere.
Kirk Mastin runs a very cool blog (http://lofihistyle.com/) on all of this. He's very good at making sense of these media changes and showing their practical application.
These are technologies I'm just starting to play with now, but they remind me of the feeling I used to get making short comedy videos back in high school...reinvigorating my creative energy because the tools are so powerful and the potential for an interested audience is very real.
What kind of shit are you saying, and how are you using these new tools to say it?