Brevity, Interactivity, 'Virality'

The enduring image of our times is the traffic jam.
However the jam is not just on our roads.
It is also in our minds.
It is not just that we are being bombarded with more and more messages.
It is also that the mainstream media all use the same few "thought-ways".
The resultant jam is why mass media and mass advertising are both going the way of the dinosaurs.
And a new paradigm of communication effectiveness is being forged.
It should not be surprising that this new paradigm is most visible in new media like Web 2.0.
The mantra of this new effectiveness is: Brevity, Interactivity and 'Virality'.
Brevity is putting the message on a nimble two-wheeler instead of a bulky truck. It avoids roadblocks and negotiates jams better.
Interactivity motivates the receiver to take the message for a drive down the open roads and side-streets of her mind. And perhaps even off the road, free-ranging the countryside and forests of her sub-conscious.
"Virality" is when the receiver likes the message so much that she introduces it to close friends that she meets on those unclogged free ways of her mind.
The new media is creating a new media structure built on the principles of "many to many" instead of "one to many".
And "one to many" will be rescued from the depredations of mass media and go back to becoming the sole preserve of genius. A Shakespeare, a Kalidas, a Mozart, a Picasso or a Fellini will communicate with mind-blowing impact, whatever the age, whatever the paradigm.