30 December 2014

New Writing and Content Marketing

In a future new media media, what kind of content may predominate ? It may be the case that content that is predicated on effect may predominate, or it may be the case that content may emerge which is predicated on that sense of diffuse effect which saturates the Internet. One may imagine that writing content for the sake of it, may be necessary in internet content, it may well produce quality content. But is it sufficient. The basis of the Internet is that it is not a drawer or a file in which work is written never to be seen. But it can in effect be so.

So we might consider that marketing is necessary, but how far is that marketing to affect the content. Well, perhaps the beauty of the Internet is that it can get very close to it, without affecting the content itself. How close, though, perhaps to the extent it hangs onto the words and meaning of it, pulling it towards an audience, but not to the extent that it changes the meaning of these words. But is this hanging something which may change the meaning. Not necessarily, if one lets the words find their place, to the extent this is possible, that is subtle and diffuse targeting relieves marketing.

But is it necessary to write content on the Internet with that intent that it should be read, a kind of structuring for it. It may be that that is naturally what one does. Thus one sidesteps the issue of writing creative content that cannot be sold. One tends to factor this in. So it does creates a different kind of content.

However the idea is to create a new kind of content; something which can find its home, when marketing tools are brought to it. So the change is not that content is written with an idea of marketing, rather that it can be marketed, it is close to marketing, without being marketing material. This is hopefully the age old problem of writing content that then needs to be edited to be sold, revisited.

But the revolutionary idea is that the content does not need to be changed, at all. One can write a blog post from the deep recesses of the mind, and have it find a home, it is a liberation for words. But what is the essential element to enable this when it is being written. It is perhaps the idea that the functional effect of the piece of writing is more to the forefront that it might be, enabling marketing of any kind to catch hold of it and send it on its way.

It this a bad thing, a degradation, well not necessarily. It is more a discipline, self imposed, rather than imposed later. What does it mean + what does it mean to do.

But can it create new content, which is inherently amenable to this voyage. Can it change the way words are strung together, can it change an idea of meaning, or an idea of art. It can possibly bring new textures to words and new ways to wrap meaning in them. This may imply that it is better to bring content from deep in the mind, those creative places where meaning emerges and perhaps better to do it online.

But it may be that this is too constricting, and that there needs to be a separation, keeping a barrier between literature and blog posts. It may indeed be necessary for something new to emerge.