If content is king, how can it be a pejorative?

Simply and broadly defined, content is anything that appears on a screen that competes for our attention.

Content takes myriad forms, but what remains the same is that we spend our days sitting in front of screens, carrying screens with us, interacting with screens. What shows up on our screens is bargaining for our limited attention, so content can take the form of video, articles, stories, news, images, texts, Tweets, Facebook status updates, reviews, books, games, apps, and so on.

The nature of content itself has evolved wherein content is not only an expression of consciousness, content creates consciousness. I touch on the concept of each individual as a filter for information and therefore, content, in my Brand Strategy Presentation, here.

Broadly interpreted, the term Content Creator describes anyone who is creating and producing original content for an audience across any of the myriad platforms that now exist to distribute that content.

And Chris Goffard and I debate the term, Content Creator, in his upcoming interview. His assertion is that “no one grows up aspiring to be a Content Creator like Hemingway.” Well, in Hemingway’s time, there wasn’t the opportunity to be a Content Creator in our modern terms, nor were there the multitude of platforms available to distribute content. Later in our chat, I point out that Chris is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, an award-nominated author of works of fiction and narrative non-fiction, and he has the LA Times first-published ebook expanded from one of his articles. He’s the very definition of Content Creator!

So if “Content Creator” is a compliment, how can “Content” be derogatory?

It’s a term even Hemingway could be proud of. It would have made him a kingmaker.