[TML] 3I Media (was Killer instinct)

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 2/22/08 2:43 AM, "davebill" <davebill at clear.net.nz> wrote:

> 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.

I think it would take a *really* major archeological or other scientific
discovery to make it to the popular news feed.  However, like today, there
would be specialist feeds for those in those fields or interested in
following them.  Something like Scientific American for science buff, plus
the full text of major scientific publications & indices of lesser stuff and
how to get it.  Same for any less popular topic.

Of course, how much info gets spread around depends a lot on who's willing
to foot the bill.  :)