We The Media

            As I sit in front of my computer preparing to write another response paper for my #Jour 325 class, I really start to think about how privileged I am. Trigged by the first chapter of author Dan Gillmor’s We the Media,  I realized that American journalists and pretty much anyone else who wants to voice his opinion on a subject can do so freely and without concern of persecution by those in power or the government in general. Journalists and citizens in other countries do not experience this extent of freedom. A perfect example of this can be seen in the Iranian government’s attempts to suppress its citizens from expressing their opinions on a botched election via Twitter. Censorship by the Iranian government is a complicated topic, however the point here is that social networking in the form of Twitter played a role in the controversy.

            Web 2.0 has arrived. Gillmor’s desire for the web to be a writeable and not just readable realm is a reality for the children of Generation Y, which is the most digitally native generation the world has ever seen. The Web has truly grown to be a product that almost defines us as a generation. With the ability to post videos, essays, blogs, and pictures at any given time, Web 2.0 allows users to play an active part in the online community.

Gilmor writes, “Newspapers flourished during the 19^th century. The best were aggressive and timely, and ultimately served their readers well. Many, however, had litter concern for what we now call objectivity. Papers had points of view, reflecting the politics of their backers and owners” (Gillmor, 3). Web 2.0 also spurs objectivity because consumers are given access to many different opinions and thoughts which is something that Web 1.0 and print newspapers did not offer. In addition to giving people many different choices and opinions, consumers can directly comment on stories and postings which spurs discussions that would not have been available to previous generations.

Web 2.0 essentially shrunk the planet and initiated the concept of the world as a global village. I became familiar with the concept of the world as a global village in the Media and Society class that I took this past semester. The speed and accessibility of information, pictures, video’s and other forms of consumed media have turned the planet into an interconnected and ever-evolving community. Almost everyone can be found and contacted via Web 2.0;  images and information on distant countries and cities are instantly accessible with the simple click of a mouse.   

           

            One of the most beneficial creations of Web 2.0 comes with the concept of a wiki and primarily Wikipedia. “In just over three years of existence it has become a valuable resource and an example of how the grassroots in today’s interconnected world can do extraordinary things”(Gillmor, 148). Wikipedia works off of the model of user participation; anyone can access, edit and add information on the various sites and pages.

This fully embodies the purpose and concept of Web 2.0,

It defies first-glance assumptions. After all, one might imagine, if anyone can edit anything, surely cyber-vandals will wreck it. Surely flame wars over article content will stymie good intentions. And, of course, the articles will all be amateurish nonsense. Right? Well, not necessarily. The open nature of Wikipedia has been its greatest resource, and it has emerged as a credible resource. (Gillmore, 148)

 By allowing user participation, Wikipedia pages tend to be very natural and unbiased even on very controversial subjects, as it gives both sides of an issue the opportunity to post information. To fit it into context of the global village, students in Australia can view and edit the same information that students in America can. Wikipedia is a digital library at the center of a digital village that billions have to which billions have access.  Expanding the concept of the global village and the “read and write web”, people no longer have to go to one central location to access news or information. Children of Generation X had only three primary ways to access current and breaking news: the newspapers, radio and television, while Generation Y has the web. This provides them with copious amounts of ways to access the same information at a faster rate. Almost all of the information I hear about current events and issues comes from the Internet. More often than not, my friends inform me about these things rather than the media outlets themselves, which ultimately is the purpose of the read and write web. Social networking sites become a way to disseminate information in ways different than professional media outlets.

            Gillmor’s vision is now a reality, Web 2.0 and the various forms of new media that are arising with it definitely have the ability to cause social change. The average person now has more power then ever to influence others. For example, I set up a blog in less then five minutes and now I can use it to freely say whatever I please to the viewing world. I am not the only one getting out and doing things like this. This ease of access is enabling people to cover events that previously would have been deemed far too unimportant for major media outlets to cover. But now these issues are being brought to the proverbial table and people are starting to act upon them. Regular citizens of Generation Y have far more power to cause change then any other generation because now everyone has a voice. This can even be seen with in the title of Gillmor’s book WE the Media; the media is now us. We no longer rely on others to provide us with something that we are fully capable of creating ourselves. We are now moving and creating the news as a society and a global village, however this has the ability to cause its own unique problem, a problem to which we act simultaneously as the solution. Eventually many media outlets and reporters are going to become extinct. But maybe that is a change that we need. The scribes gave way to the printing press and the printing press gave way to the Internet. Who is to say that journalists will not give way to the people?  

The Cluetrain Manifesto

I can say without hesitation that the Internet has the capacity to change its user’s lives. As a digital native the internet touched my life at a very young age, and I have witnessed firsthand its evolution to a more user friendly web 2.0. Not many people  expect me to have seen and experienced this phenomenon seeing as I am an athlete and have easily been able to duck and dodge the “geek” label. What they do not realize is that my athletic involvement has not prevented me from being informed and in touch with new technology. For example, various aspects of the Internet, mainly Twitter,  helped me register for this course, upon several tweets and an email to my professor. Ironically, this ties into Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls and David Weinburger’s book The Cluetrain Manifesto. I took advantage of several direct connections who assisted me in joining this journalism class.
The Cluetrain begins with a list of 95 theses. Its most important was first, “Markets are conversation.” Having taken a media and society class last semester this idea jumped off the page at me because I was already aware of the fact that a discussion or conversation could not exist without an open forum for free robust conversation, and the Internet is the perfect place for this conversation to take place.
“The Internet became a place where people could talk to other people without constraint. Without filters or censorship or official sanction — and perhaps most significantly, without advertising”(Chapter 1, Levine, Locke, Searls & Weinberger). The Internet has forced people to clearly explain their stances on their respective issues and with their respective opinions because there is so much room for free interpretation of words. Originally the Forum for this literally required face to face communication between many people, but now the forum has been transported into large industrial buildings that house the various hard drives and servers that run many networks.  The Cluetrain had a problem with this because prior to web 2.0  caused the slight problem of depersonalization within the industries producing online products.

“Its increasing divorce from the day-to-day concerns of real people, commerce has come to ignore the natural conversation that defines communities as human” (Chapter 1).
 This excerpt shows that consumers could not really interact and get the proper feed back they required.  This means, for example, that the young parent who recently purchased his child a video game system, could not call the company for help with the device because of the existence of automated answering systems that provide needy customers with only a set amount of responses to their problems.
Steps to change this came when private companies started to deprogram their production lines and supply chain styles to encourage workers to start exchanging their ideas and opinions over the Intranet. Ideas began to flourish and things would never be the same simply because people were given the forum for genuine conversation occurs.
Now the customer service aspect of companies is incredibly efficient and effective. A good example of this is SouthWest Airlines. They have a Twitter site that often tweets about various promotions.  Customers can also mention complaints or issues with the company. The first major issue they encountered they handled very well. Actor Kevin Smith who is known best for his roles in “Clerks” and “MallRats” was thrown off of a flight because of his size. He instantly went to the Twitter world and began bashing @Southwestair. The Southwest customer service Twitter team instantly sprang into action and quickly and efficiently resolved the problem.
  The Internet is now evolving to be an extension of television as a result of the advertising, marketing a demographic issues that are being researched by various companies. Unlike television, the Internet does not shove information down its viewers throats. Internet users have the ability to interact with each other based on what they are watching. It has the capability to bring individual people together, those who were previously viewing certain shows by themselves and talking to themselves now have the ability to hop online and go on a website such as Twitter or Facebook and put their opinions out there for the world to see and discuss. The web really allows traditional media to stretch further and causes more discussion then what was originally intended. I found myself doing this as I was watching MSNBC’s “To Catch a Predator” and G4’s “Cheaters.” Ironically, “To Catch a Predator” is a series hosted by Chris Hansen where Internet predators that prey on unsuspecting minors are caught in an online sting operation. The investigation employs decoys who use various online chat services to get adult men to agree to come to the home of an innocent minor in the search for sexual pleasure.  This is an example of one of the downsides of chatrooms on the Internet. Chats have the ability to turn the world into one large community due to the rate at which information is being exchanged.

Ultimately, the Cluetrain really stresses the benefits of the Internet and its practical applications throughout the business world and regular day to day human interaction. It reitterates the fact that we as people desperately need a new world to speak in, and the Internet provides us with that realm. Social media is our outlet, and it is not regulated like all other forms of media, so there is so much room for total freedom of expression. Twitter pages and Facebook statuses draw attention from us because as humans we’re programmed to respond to a personal voice, and we see that voice within these posts.  Business markets used to exist purely because of face to face communication, but this is no longer the case. Now we can almost instantly communicate with each other over vast distances and at any point in time.

Hello

Hello World... I'm not gonna lie I would never have seen myself as the kind of guy to have a blog. But hey lets dive into this.