These were the introductory slides to a panel debate on the impact of the web on professional financial advice businesses at the Personal Finance Society Annual Conference 2010 at the University of Warwick. They were designed to illustrate how the traditional model of mass communication had been disrupted and altered by the intervention of the social web.

1. The changing model of promotional communication Personal Finance Society Annual Conference University of Warwick, September 2010 Ian Thomas www.newtradition.co.uk

2. Health warning These slides are designed to illustrate how changes in technology have disrupted the traditional model of promotional communications.

3. They do not, by any means, offer a comprehensive analysis – they just help to illustrate change.

4. If you want to read all about mass communications theory, try Denis McQuail’s Mass Communications Theory. OK…

5. So, at one end of the model, there’s an individual or organisation that wants to transmit something… Encoder

6. Which means they have to decide on the content of a message… Encoder Message

7. And select the media by which they intend to transmit that message… Encoder Message Medium

8. In order to reach an individual at the other end of the process… Encoder Message Decoder Medium

9. Encoder Message Decoder Medium …with access to the means to receive and understand the message

10. So the rules of engagement are determined by those with the ability to gain access to the medium… Encoder Message Decoder Medium

11. Encoder Message Decoder Medium …while consumers of content are subject to those rules

12. Web 1.0 continued this pattern Encoder Message Decoder Medium

13. Web 1.0 continued this pattern Encoder Message Decoder Medium But Web 2.0 has entirely changed the potential of this role

14. That’s because Web 2.0 has made the ability to publish content freely available

15. That’s because Web 2.0 has made the ability to publish content freely available Free

16. So the rules of engagement are determined by those with ability to gain access to the medium… Message Encoder Medium

17. So the rules of engagement are determined by those with ability to gain access to the medium… Encoder Message Message Encoder Medium And the rules of engagement are determined by those with ability to gain access to the medium…

18. You end up with a model where – so long as they’re prepared to invest the time – individuals possess the same potential as organisations to publish content via platforms Provider Content Content Provider Platform

19. Which is social

20. Which is social (As in socialist – everyone who’s able to can participate equally in a common means of sharing and publication)