The big screen, the silver screen, and the fireside chat “box” have all come under fire, thanks to none other than the Internet. That crazy new form of communication has threatened mainstream media, taking down one industry at a time. Remember Justin Timberlake’s line in “The Social Network” about his character Sean Parker’s disruption of the music industry being a far more important contribution than making money on a web project? Or the massive lawsuit Viacom, NBC and others brought against YouTube? Or the gut-wrenching royalties Internet radio stations are forced to pay to major record labels? They all point to one thing: panic.

Panic has been a defining characteristic of mainstream media for several years now, with a few recent developments suggesting that the end is near. Podcasting News shares some recent stats on the matter, detailing trends on the impending death of cable, and radio too:

New research shows that people are abandoning old media by the millions for Internet media. And if they aren’t abandoning it, they are cutting way back on the time the spend with it.

First of all, there’s bad news for cable:

• In a survey of 2,500 consumers, 7 percent said they had stopped using basic cable service;
• 12 percent reported cutting their premium cable or satellite services.
• When asked about their expectations for next year, 21 percent of households in the under $50,000 bracket said they’d cancel their basic cable next year.

The trends are just as bad for radio:

• Young people have cut their radio use in half in the last decade. In 2000, 12-24 year olds spent an average of 2 hours and 43 minutes a day listening to radio. This has dropped to just 1 hour and 24 minutes.
• 3 times as many young people are listening to Pandora radio as listen to traditional radio broadcasts via the Internet.
• Young people spend twice as much time on the Internet now as they do listening to radio.

While these are positive trends for anyone interested in new media, numbers like these are going to mean even more disruption for traditional media.

Man, these youth today. They ruin everything! But the introduction of web-based distribution doesn’t necessarily mean that the media giants of yore are fading. The adoption of web-based media by these larger companies is a primary reason they’ve been able to take off at all. I’ve been noting, for several years now, that the takeover of web-based media distribution is a journey of convergance, supported in part by mainstream media.

The evolution of media is then, a state of mind. At the end of the day, the big players in media monetization hit a bump in the road, but are still managing to take home the biggeset paychecks at the end of the day. It’s not that cable is no longer being used, it’s that cable for media purposes has shifted.

It is undeniable that cable and satellite will take a hit, but they will evolve,” says Art Lindsey. “While it is true that a lot of people are “cutting” their cable for IPTV based services it is important to remember that for most folks, their Internet service is actually coming through the same cable via the same company their television connection once did. The cable is never really cut, it’s just being used differently. As with anything else, the cunning will adapt, and the rest will die off. But Trust me when I tell you that these large companies aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon.”

That’s a point David Spears, CEO of GeniSys Global, brought up to me during a chat last week. His company, which sets up a range of hosted solutions for SMBs, sees every aspect of virtual systems, media distribution, cable usage and related corporate structures. Spears was quick to mention that consumer behavior is certainly shifting the way in which cable is used, but the cable company itself isn’t going anywhere. New systems encourage new behavior, but that simply means there are new methods of reaching consumers, many of which still lead back to the core technologies that fostered the Internet in the first place. There’s a long-standing, vested interest these companies have in web technology, and there’s no doubt mainstream media is finding ways to adjust.

One instance came about this week with The New York Times, which saw a decline in shares, but an increase in digital response. While print media in particular has taken a hit from digital distribution, the primary struggle comes in monitoring and monetizing activity around these new trends. Pandora is another instance of web-based media going the way of the mainstream, building out its advertising network for mobile apps.

Lindsey goes on to praise the adaptability of mainstream media, which is fostered by none other than the Internet, saying,

“The argument can be made that radio is shifting more than dying. Like cable, there will be changes, but they won’t be as dramatic. To their credit, a lot of the top radio programs have foreseen this and have branched out very successfully to the Internet.

“However, ease of access and use will keep radio in the game for quite some time. Until accessing radio in the Internet is just as easy as turning on the old transistor, radio will be around. So, yes, there is a downturn, but compensation for the downturn is underway. Let’s not be too hasty with the funeral arrangements.”