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<div> <b>
Independent Arts & Media 2006 Fund Drive</b><br>
Funds raised so
far: $250 // Goal: $2,000<br>
People on
list:
942 <span
></span> // Weeks left: 2<br>
<br>
Donate online:
http://artsandmedia.net/contributions/<br>
<br>
* Full details
on making a tax-deductible<br>
donation are at the end of this email. *<br>
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<div>December 14, 2006</div>
<div><br>
Dear Friends;<br>
<br>
Thanks to the folks who've donated to Indy Arts so far! We've raised
$250, and urgently need your support to meet our year-end funding
goal.<br>
<br>
This week: Do 100 million MySpace accounts add up to democracy
renewed? <br>
<br>
Remember that Rupert Murdoch didn't purchase MySpace because it's a
beacon of online self-expression.<br>
<br>
As noted in Wired magazine ("His Space," July 2006), he
bought it because MySpace is an enormous database of customers with
whom to develop intricate one-to-one marketing relationships:<br>
<br>
"The most immediate [challenge] is to avoid
doing<br>
anything that might interfere with the runaway
growth<br>
that has already made MySpace the biggest
aggregation<br>
of people on the Web. But that's just step one.
Step<br>
two is to turn MySpace's teeming masses into a
wholly<br>
new kind of media entity, an advertising,
marketing,<br>
and distribution vehicle that gives News Corp. a
hand<br>
on the steering wheel of popular culture
worldwide."<br>
</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><b>THE NEW MASS MEDIA</b></div>
<div>Luckily for Murdoch, much of the marketing technology he needs is
already built into the MySpace platform, as the company was founded by
pioneers of the spam, adware, spyware and mass-email industry (see
below for details).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>In this "wholly new kind of media entity," the
Internet's cornucopia of ideas, information and art becomes an
immersive series of massively personalized consumer
experiences. <br>
<br>
Murdoch has seen this future, and it's brilliant. It's hundreds of
millions of online users, tracked and analyzed on a daily basis. It's
narrowcast and demographically targeted with unprecedented accuracy.
Like Pavlov, it rewards certain consumer behaviors, and devalues
others.<br>
<br>
And commerce ain't the half of it. What if the masters of this new
mass medium have a political agenda as well?<br>
</div>
<div><b>SUPPORT INDEPENDENT CULTURE & COMMUNITY</b><br>
Fortunately, this is a future we can opt out of. Independent culture
and community is alive and well in the United States and around the
world.<br>
<br>
We at Indy Arts are dedicated to supporting D.I.Y. cultural
entrepreneurs and civic-minded, "open source" media and
dialogue.<br>
<br>
We contribute to the new public-media sector that is emerging on the
Internet -- and we take our work offline, into the real world, with
programs such as the Expo for the Artist & Musician, fiscal
sponsorship, dozens of free workshops and dialogue events, and
non-virtual print and radio media.<br>
</div>
<div><i>Your tax-deductible donations of $25, $50, $100, $500 or more
will keep these vital services alive -- and help Indy Arts
grow:</i><br>
<br>
Indy Arts Donor Page<br>
http://artsandmedia.net/contributions/<br>
<br>
Snail Mail (checks only!): Independent Arts &
Media<br>
PMB 821 * 601 Van Ness Ave., Ste. E * SF, CA
94102<br>
<br>
<br>
Thanks so much for your support of independent culture and
community!<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
The Indy Arts Staff & Volunteers<br>
<br>
<br>
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<div><b>THE MYSPACE FUTURE?</b><br>
<br>
-- Software in your MySpace homepage will
harvest<br>
your online behavior patterns to send
you personalized<br>
feeds of news, media and entertainment.
Paradoxically,<br>
audience diversity fuels niche
marketing. Knowledge<br>
of news, issues and arts outside of
one's own special<br>
interests declines.<br>
<br>
-- Other media corporations join forces with
News Corp.<br>
to "incentivize" purchases
of, for example, pop music.<br>
Fans will be rewarded with store
credits or free concert</div>
<div> tickets for posting positive
reviews to their blog of a<br>
band on an affiliated partner label.
Bands on unaffiliated<br>
or independent labels somehow wind up
at the bottom of the<br>
personalized MySpace feed, if at
all.<br>
<br>
-- Political messaging becomes ever more
subtle and pervasive<br>
in the "post-Fairness Doctrine"
era. Media corporations with<br>
political agendas will be able to
screen out or decrease<br>
the presence of competing political
messages.<br>
</div>
<div><b>REFERENCES</b><br>
<br>
-= "His Space"<br>
Wired, July 2006<br>
http://tinyurl.com/me3ao<br>
<br>
A telling profile of Rupert Murdoch and
his long-term<br>
plans for News Corporation and
MySpace.<br>
</div>
<div> <br
>
-= "MySpace: The Business of Spam
2.0"<br>
Valleywag.com, Sept. 11, 2006<br>
http://tinyurl.com/evj7g<br>
<br>
"Most users believe that MySpace
started as some kind of<br>
fluke -- a happy accident that began in
Anderson's bedroom<br>
or garage--and many still don't wonder,
know, or care about<br>
the site's real business history and
model. Heralded as a<br>
haven of DIY self-expression, MySpace
was actually created<br>
by executives whose backgrounds are
anchored in spam and<br>
mass marketing ... The real genius of
MySpace lies in its<br>
re-imagining and repackaging of spam.
While most Internet<br>
users expend time and energy attempting
to keep it out,<br>
MySpace is spam that they actually
invite in."<br>
<br>
<br>
-= "2006, Brought to You by
You"<br>
New York Times, Sunday, Dec. 10,
2006<br>
http://tinyurl.com/y2tyvo<br>
<br>
MySpace and YouTube are sold to Fox and
Google,<br>
respectively, for more than $2 billion,
and independent<br>
culture online is officially a force to
be reckoned<br>
with. "User-generated content"
disrupts the film and<br>
video industry's retail model -- and
plays fast and<br>
loose with copyright -- but it also
creates new ways to<br>
maximize profits:<br>
<br>
- SELF-EXPRESSION AS A MARKETING
VEHICLE<br>
"A truly shrewd marketer might
find [that] parodies,<br>
collages, remakes and mismakes are
unvarnished market<br>
research: a way to see what people
really think of<br>
their product. They're also
advertising: a reminder of<br>
how enjoyable the official versions
were."<br>
<br>
- NARROWCASTING<br>
"The multiplying choices promise
ever more diversity,<br>
ever more possibility for innovation
and unexpected<br>
delight. But they also point toward an
increasingly<br>
atomized audience, a popular culture
composed of a<br>
zillion nonintersecting mini-cults. So
much available<br>
self-expression can only accelerate
what narrowing<br>
radio and cable formats had already
begun: the<br>
separation of culture into ever-smaller
niches."<br>
<br>
<br>
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</div>
<div> <b> HERE'S HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT OUR
WORK</b><br>
</div>
<div> <b>
Independent Arts & Media 2006 Fund Drive</b><br>
Funds raised so
far: $250 // Goal: $2,000<br>
People on
List: 922 // Weeks
left: 2<br>
<br>
Recommended
donations: $25, $50, $100, $500 or more.<br>
<br>
Donate online:
http://artsandmedia.net/contributions/<br>
<br>
Snail Mail
(checks only!): Independent Arts & Media<br>
PMB 821 * 601
Van Ness Ave., Ste. E * SF, CA 94102<br>
<br>
* All donations
are tax-deductible. *<br>
* Thank you for
your generous support! *<br>
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