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For most Americans, digital screens are ever-present and the attention we pay to them is paradoxically both scattered and deeply absorbed. Layer in the multiplying effects of eroding trust, booming AI and misinformation in media, brands increasingly operate in contexts beyond their control.

Jeffrey Cole, director of USC’s Center for the Digital Future, studies how media and digital technology across entertainment, sports and streaming networks prepares for future disruptions. He compiled lessons from this work in his upcoming book called Disruptors At The Gate: When Visionaries, Trailblazers, And Two Guys In A Garage Turned The World Upside Down. He believes brands can anticipate disruption, foster trust through authenticity and consistently and deliver transparent communication to engage consumers in the shifting digital landscape.

MacArthur: What's the evolution of content, how we're watching it and how brands are interacting with that?

Cole: All my life has been technology and how this technology changes our lives, but I've really discovered in the last five or six years, It's not really technology, it's disruption. It's change that comes from unexpected places, turns everything upside down. And remarkably big companies, big institutions rarely react well to disruption.

MacArthur: Is this what you cover in your book?

Cole: It's case studies of companies that completely failed at disruption. It's companies that tried to buy up their disruptors. There are a handful of companies that survived disruption and actually changed and rather than doubling down, looked within themselves and saw their own weaknesses. Best Buy is a really good example of that. And then there are the companies that the jig is up. They can't survive. Kodak is the best example of that. Today, teenagers take 10,000 times more photographs than we ever did, and yet their total expenditure on photography, it'll probably be less than $50 in their lifetime.

MacArthur: How has content consumption evolved?

Cole: It's not the content that's changed so much, it's the platform. The platforms that have really changed. The thing that's hurting movie theaters is streaming. And yet on streaming, we want that same content. The content does adapt a bit. We've seen attention spans change over the last a hundred years.

MacArthur: Has the content itself changed?

Cole: The barrier to being a creator has almost disappeared. We don't need thousands or $10,000 worth of equipment. That's created a whole different type of content. For brands, life used to be easy. To reach your audience, you only had to go to ABC, NBC, CBS. It was expensive, but it was easy. In the evening, you could reach as much as 90% of the country. We had programs that attracted 40 million people a week. Now, brands have to work so much harder.

MacArthur: What can brands do to ensure they’re not being harmed when facing content they don’t control?

Cole: The first step to trying to deal with disruption is expect to be disrupted. Every brand knows its advertising messages are going to be disrupted. It means a tremendous amount of tracking. It means being in close communication with your customers. People expect more than just the hard sell. They want to have a relationship with this company, and they want to understand that relationship and the things the company stands for. None of that existed 25 years ago.