Economics is the study of choices and the costs - or consequences - of choices. One important economic question would include: What happens when individuals and/or groups oppose technological innovation because they fear the competition, or the temporary shake-up to certain traditional jobs caused by innovation? The following article compares the fear of mainstream media to competition from online news sources and bloggers to the competition that Gutenberg's printing press posed to the medieval control of scripture - and its interpretation - by the Catholic Church.
"We all know the stories about the initial opposition to technological advancements, ranging from the wariness regarding the appearance of books to the rejection of railway travel due to distrust of the train’s immense speed.
When Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press, he revolutionized the way information was able to spread. Suddenly, it became realistic to mass produce information that had previously only been accessible to the privileged few. This was especially true for the distribution of the scripture, which until now had only been reserved for the members of the church."