Soapboxes, Sellouts and Upstarts

The media landscape isn't at all the same today as it was 15 years ago when rabble.ca first started publishing on the Internet. In 2001, we looked at web pages. They were mostly text and image which didn't move. And there wasn't much to hear either except your hands clicking on the keyboard. YouTube wasn't invented until 2005 (the same year rabble established the podcast network). And the terms "apps" and "social media" wouldn't come into common usage for at least five years after  … Snapchat, Twitter … what's that? Now, in 2016, everyone who works in media is working in an extremely challenging, ever-shifting environment. On the June 17 weekend, rabble staff gathered in Toronto for a weekend planning retreat to start to chart our NEXT 15 years.  The weekend began with a provocative discussion by our director of emerging media, Wayne MacPhail on "Soapboxes, Sellouts and Upstarts: The Canadian Media Landscape — and where rabble fits in," with an introduction by rabble co-founder Judy Rebick. This month's rabble radio is an excerpted version of that discussion.