A general piece on blogging . . . .
New media
Talking to yourself
Apr 20th 2006
From The Economist print edition
Do not be too afraid of the coming age of mass participation
FOR the past few weeks the “mainstream media” in America have been busy chewing over the choice of Katie Couric, a popular host of NBC's Today show, to become the anchor of the CBS Evening News in September. Those in other countries, as well as Americans under 30, may be forgiven for thinking that a news story about a newscaster is just a spectacular bout of navel-gazing. Of course it is—which is precisely why it holds a couple of lessons about “new media”.
News about News is partly the product of journalists' urge to talk about themselves—a pretty universal urge, as it turns out. The same impulse is the key to the changes sweeping through news and entertainment, as our survey on New Media describes. Mass media used to be one-way traffic from media to audiences. Readers, listeners and viewers, as a murmur besides the pontification of professionals, were consigned to call-in shows and the letters pages.
The shift to an era of participation challenges this. The infrastructure for delivering media content—the internet—is fast becoming ubiquitous. Ordinary people are creating their own blogs, wikis and podcasts, because it costs almost nothing to do so. Most of them do not care how large their “audience” is. Some choose to keep it small and intimate; a tiny number become stars—one-man and one-woman news organisations in their own right. Since the audience is made up of people who are themselves sounding off, new media are more of a hubbub than a homily.
Which leads to the second item on the Evening News: anxiety. Ms Couric's job matters because it is an attempt to shore up a crumbling institution. Media executives are not the only ones to fret as audiences decline. The CBS Evening News was first broadcast in 1948 and people are sentimental about the media they grew up with. The fear is partly about what might be lost from the mainstream, partly of what might replace it. Many fear that a cacophony leads to a splintered society. How can anything good come from the clamour of so many raised voices? Isn't it an echo chamber in which those full of passionate intensity spend long hours sharing prejudices?
That is wildly pessimistic. For a start, in the age of mass participation, new media will co-exist with old—indeed it is already increasingly hard to tell when one becomes the other. True, ever more people will upload short video clips to new websites such as YouTube.com, go to Netflix.com to rate their DVDs, to Amazon.com to discuss books and their own blogs for online debate. But that will not replace Steven Spielberg's blockbusters or the New York Times's network of reporters.
Moreover, the ease with which the internet spreads wrong-headedness—to say nothing of lies and slander—is offset by the ease with which it spreads insights and ideas. To regret the glorious fecundity of new media is to choose the hushed reverence of the cathedral over the din of the bazaar.
from The Economist (http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?story_id=6826185)
New media
Talking to yourself
Apr 20th 2006
From The Economist print edition
Do not be too afraid of the coming age of mass participation
FOR the past few weeks the “mainstream media” in America have been busy chewing over the choice of Katie Couric, a popular host of NBC's Today show, to become the anchor of the CBS Evening News in September. Those in other countries, as well as Americans under 30, may be forgiven for thinking that a news story about a newscaster is just a spectacular bout of navel-gazing. Of course it is—which is precisely why it holds a couple of lessons about “new media”.
News about News is partly the product of journalists' urge to talk about themselves—a pretty universal urge, as it turns out. The same impulse is the key to the changes sweeping through news and entertainment, as our survey on New Media describes. Mass media used to be one-way traffic from media to audiences. Readers, listeners and viewers, as a murmur besides the pontification of professionals, were consigned to call-in shows and the letters pages.
The shift to an era of participation challenges this. The infrastructure for delivering media content—the internet—is fast becoming ubiquitous. Ordinary people are creating their own blogs, wikis and podcasts, because it costs almost nothing to do so. Most of them do not care how large their “audience” is. Some choose to keep it small and intimate; a tiny number become stars—one-man and one-woman news organisations in their own right. Since the audience is made up of people who are themselves sounding off, new media are more of a hubbub than a homily.
Which leads to the second item on the Evening News: anxiety. Ms Couric's job matters because it is an attempt to shore up a crumbling institution. Media executives are not the only ones to fret as audiences decline. The CBS Evening News was first broadcast in 1948 and people are sentimental about the media they grew up with. The fear is partly about what might be lost from the mainstream, partly of what might replace it. Many fear that a cacophony leads to a splintered society. How can anything good come from the clamour of so many raised voices? Isn't it an echo chamber in which those full of passionate intensity spend long hours sharing prejudices?
That is wildly pessimistic. For a start, in the age of mass participation, new media will co-exist with old—indeed it is already increasingly hard to tell when one becomes the other. True, ever more people will upload short video clips to new websites such as YouTube.com, go to Netflix.com to rate their DVDs, to Amazon.com to discuss books and their own blogs for online debate. But that will not replace Steven Spielberg's blockbusters or the New York Times's network of reporters.
Moreover, the ease with which the internet spreads wrong-headedness—to say nothing of lies and slander—is offset by the ease with which it spreads insights and ideas. To regret the glorious fecundity of new media is to choose the hushed reverence of the cathedral over the din of the bazaar.
from The Economist (http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?story_id=6826185)
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i love your blog!!! read it everyday! and susie's too - you're my 2 favs!
