The future has arrived in the entertainment and infotainment business. Both the broadcast media space and the independent/network film scene have been upended. A past generation of linear programming has lost its leverage in today’s hyper-attention-seeking digital landscape of endless content. The ever shifting global world of newsgathering, information dissemination, content creation, and entertainment value have all crossed over to something entirely new with no point of return. And, this new phase, era, reality–whatever you want to call it–will no longer be the same. The rules have changed. The game is different. There’s no going back from here.

Industry experts anticipated this digital revolution for years. But, just how exactly and when precisely the ‘re-evolution’ was going to arrive was anybody’s guess. It’s a bit simple-minded to say that at the start of 2025 was the year everything changed. Such a narrative fits so fittingly into a timely reflection of the first quarter of the 21st century. One can say that things were in the works for years. Others say this cataclysmic shift required a start and end point. A few would point to a transitory moment months in the making. Some call this an end of an era, a necessary restart, or a critical juncture. I call this simply, market correction.

The post-cord cutting, algorithm-induced digital streams spawned by social media lifestyles is now the new norm. It’s on all of us–young and old, black or white, rich or poor–to get with the program. Even if you’re in front of the camera or not. Learn the hashtags, the clickbait, the information saturation coming at you unencumbered. When everyone ran to their silos and echo chambers in focused 24/7 sports and political coverage it left a lot of things behind–including the impartial journalist seeking the truth (with a capital T) in validated facts. The consumer-viewer now holds the cards; and in this case, the remote. Advertisers now fall prey to the spell and whims of shifting audiences. These viewers juxtaposed in demographic groups dictate the very impulse of what is to be visually and auditorily consumed. All under the controlling gaze of Silicon Valley corporations who hold both the keys to access in the more popularly-engaged platforms and the very psychological grip that keeps us coming back for more.

Monetization efforts and consumer approaches have shifted in dizzying paces. Businesses–big and small–are retreating to the sidelines of this shifting industry to see what ways capitalism can wave its invisible hand. Some of the new ways of profiting require media conglomerates of the past to join forces in corporate mergers. Not necessary as a recourse in an industry takeover but to get a share of the evasive pie in an ever-shifting, precarious global media market. Layoffs are aplenty in this new future. Job security a fading norm. Coupled with the growing reality of income inequality and wage stagnation, our new marketplace has shaken dreams and splintered the very foundations that once held up.

From the bottom to the top–everyone affected in this media industry is reckoned to face that fork in the road–which calls on us to seek new motivations and inspirations to keep going on. Opportunists rub their hands together miserly salivating in these turbulent times believing they have a hand in carving their niche in this terrain of splintering digital media markets. Dreamers see a light at the end of the tunnel where they can make their mark for whatever this new change will end up looking like. Business models with large overheads will need to be more nimble. Résumés more colorful. Which both calls on us all to diversify or in euphoric terms “dance within the borders”. Versatility and multi-tasking will take on a new meaning when this very industry goes all in on the encroaching expanse of artificial intelligence. This moment we’re in could mean everything in the entertainment and infotainment industry’s eventual fate for any necessary course-correction.