There’s a post that pops up on occasion on Mastodon or the other socials from time to time, where an artist or creator chafes at their work being labelled as ‘content’.
And while I can sympathize, I hate to break it to them, but the genie is out of the bottle.
It’s all content.
It has been since the late 1900s.
I was reading Jenkins et. al. (2018) recently while prepping Episode 16 of the Implausipod, and even there “content” was being referenced.
So for future reference, let’s cover off why ‘content’ is fine.
Imagine, you have a pizza shop. You make some fantastic pizza. Best in town. Maybe as a customer I’m feeling like a pizza, maybe deep dish, maybe thin crust, maybe even a calzone. I’m not being picky.
But sometimes I’m feeling like a steak, or a stir fry, or a pho, or a Reuben, or breadsticks, or whatever. (Clearly I need to stop writing this before dinner).
And maybe, just maybe, I want to make something myself. At home, or on a campfire in the mountains (or whatever).
Regardless of what I’m having, we can all agree that we’re talking about food.
So too with content: it doesn’t matter if it’s a video or a blog post or a podcast or a digital comic, or even traditional art. It’s a bit of a mouthful to spell it all out, listing each and every type. Especially if we’re really interested in talking about food (sorry, content) in general.
And if someone objects, and says “I don’t make food, I make pizza!“, well, you go, you do you. But it comes across as weird to deny that what you’re making counts as food too.
So, yeah, let’s not do that. We used to call it “media”, and while that still holds true, in the 21st century we refer to it as “content” too.
So enjoy! Mange! Dig in. Find something tasty.
