We the Media: Response 1
The internet has become a generally free news source, is not necessarily controlled by “The Man”, and is considered by many to be a wonderful, democratic shift into the future. Many, however, consider it to be the downfall of humanity, an almost anarchist intervention, what with information no longer being controlled and posted by absolutely anyone. It is not always a system of checks and balances, unless it is understood to be communal information, where many people have access to edit a bank of information, but many also have the power to edit each other’s contributions.
Credible voices are swamped by uninformed, opinionated voices that know HTML and can post at will - this is the anarchy media, the anarchist internet. The difference between this and grassroots media by the people (which is kind of confusing) is that grassroots movements are more interested in making sure informed, experienced voices are heard and not stifled by those voices that are more prominant and popular.
I thought Dan Gillmor’s summed-up account of how technology has changed the way his feild functions in information dissemination. Simply with his description of the cable’s influence on technology, it’s easy to see how the function of a cable has changed the way we catalogue, access, and share information with each other. Serving as a pipe of condensed energy and information, the cable has, firstly, powered the electricity to radios, then TVs, then the internet possible. Then, after mastering the concept of radio and television waves, the cable then became and information sender. However, because they were corporatley owned, cables, in a way, were also limiting. Or, at least, cable information remained limited to those who owned it, while simulatneously expanded the capacity of information.
It’s hard for me to understand just how influential technology and the internet has changed access to information. I remember not ever having contact with the internet until I was probably thirteen, and not understanding, yet being enamoured with, a compact disc was when I was about nine. When I needed to find something, I immediatly went to my family’s outdated encyclopedia collection from the early eighties, which I now realize has more of an aesthetic effect rather than an informative one. Now, I can’t remember the last time I’ve consulted such an archaic form - I check the internet first, if not for information, than at least to access call numbers for books. “The downfall of humanity!” says my father. Probably not - just a new form of journalism with all of its ups and downs.
2 comments:
Your essay on "We the Media" was great. I always struggle with the limit of one page, because it is hard for me to be brief and concise with my thoughts while still giving a good analysis of the entire reading. I had not really considered the changes that the internet has brought to journalism and the news media very much until reading this book, probably because I am not in the field. Yet reading Dan Gilmore's account, as you point out in your first paragraph, relly brings the changes to the fore.
I felt your essay did a good job in being fair. I think in regards to the internet not being controlled is something mainstream tv tends not understand, most of the internet is owned by companies like google and yahoo and I feel as though those companies do a lot of censoring ie google safe search.
Post a Comment