[TML] 3I Media (was Killer instinct)

[davebill]

> Ob Trav: How does media production work in the 3I? Is it all local? How 
> does
> a company handle distribution across different tech levels and cultural
> biases? Is it even desirable to try for sub-sector to sector wide 
> dominance
> of media production?
>

I would imagine planetary, or system media, would work very much like 
internet media feeds today. The 'Foreign News' section of your news feed 
will be packages off the X-Boat/Subsidised Mail ship sorted by date and 
relevance. So, 30,000 dead in an accident in the next system is news, but 
traffic accidents aren't - unless they're funny, and then they'll come in 
some sort of package like 'America's Funniest Home Videos'. An 
archaeological discovery in the next subsector may rate a 300 word mention, 
with tags allowing you to request more information, but LaTeshia LaBoing 
Boing's wardrobe malfunction in the next Quadrant will probably have it's 
own separate multi viewer-controlled POV holographic channel, if she's a 
celeb on your planet.

When you consider the entire daily media output of a POP 6+ world, and how 
relevant it may be in another system, the amount of data that could 
conceivably be shifted is huge (brings to mind that discussion about X-Boat 
capacity a couple of months back) - especially if the target market only 
gets Hi-Light tags which can lead them back to fuller articles. Though, 
trying to sort what was of relevance or interest to a target demograph on 
the target world would probably ensure more data was shifted than absolutely 
necessary.

I can see some sort of relevance radius being drawn around a planet - 
information from beyond this line, say 10 parsecs out, is of no relevance 
unless it involves wars, planets colliding, or the Imperial Family, heck, 
half the viewing audience will probably have difficulty locating planets 
outside their own system so they're not news unless funny or include massive 
death tolls (or particularly nasty modes of death).

There would probably be more in-depth data feeds available but these might 
be along the lines of Year Books and would be progressively more out of 
date, the further a system was away from your planet.

David