Is Local Television In Trouble Or Not?

[Commentary] To my mind, there are 10 major cultural trends that underwrite the necessity of a local media reinvention:

1. Power and authority are weakened by the nature of the Web. Information is power and information is distributed today instead of centralized.
2. We are drifting into a horizontal culture instead of one that is deliberately top-down.
3. People can organize on a dime.
4. People can make and distribute their own media.
5. Personal branding is the default social construct.
6. Advertising is in a major revolution, because, like the people to whom they sell products, business and industry can make and distribute their own media, too.
7. Disintermediation continues to impact industry. People never wanted bundles of stuff in the first place. Exhibit A: Music.
8. The networked world increasingly takes precedence over time and space. Who knew Amazon could deliver overnight?
9. Traditional "jobs" with benefits and structure have become increasingly more difficult to get and support. We'll all be independent contractors soon.
10. We shouldn't be nearly as concerned about the government spying on us as they should be concerned about us keeping track of them.