Mark on Media

Sunday, January 9, 2005

THAT OVERWHELMED FEELING

Mary Hodder at Napsterization about how she has come to terms with information overload.
11:34:08 AM LINK TO THIS POST

THE MEDIA DEBATE

Joi Ito has a good post about NY Times musings that it may go to paid subscriptions for its web site. And it's kicked off an interesting debate in the comments that neatly encapsulates many of the issues confronting media, whether it's new or legacy.
11:30:02 AM LINK TO THIS POST

SAILING THE SAME BOAT

Bertrand Pecquerie points out the big tech firms and a lot of those blogging and talking about open source or citizens journalism are speaking the same language.

I'm struck by the fact that there is no more difference between the speeches of tech firms CEO — as Carly Fiorina or Bill Gates — and some well-known bloggers about participatory or open source media. In the nineties, pioneers were struggling against big interests, now they are sailing on the same boat. It certainly means something in the media debate.

There seems to have been a fairly significant development of consumer/participant: digital cameras and connectivity beget a new creativity and new "media" like Flick'r and dot.mac; contectivity and content management systems (code and database) beget personal media (blogs); connectivity and iPod beget podcasting (2,000 "shows" and counting).

Journalism is not exempt. Connectivity and technology means if I have a story to tell, something to say, something to show, I don't need to convince a reporter or editor to help me tell it, say it or show it.

I think the important thing that Bertrand is pointing to is that now the tech firms and (to some degree or another) mainstream media "get it." It's increasingly about the conversation, the mediascape, and everybody is talking about the same thing. He quotes Carly Fiorina of HP:

The real story of the digital revolution is not just new products, but the millions of experiences made possible and stories that millions can tell.

Very few in media seem to be fighting that: the smart folk are trying to find ways to make it all work, whether it's from a genuine desire to do journalism better or a fear if being made irrelevant.
11:03:29 AM LINK TO THIS POST

CONTROVERSIAL PHOTOS

The New York Times has an annotated slide show of images that readers objected to in 2004.

Newspaper normally treat reader protest by limiting it to the letters to the editor section or (on very rare occasions) an occasional article. I like public editor Daniel Okrent's decision to put together some of the controversial photos and the criticism they drew, without spending time explaining or justifying. Let the viewer decide whether you were right or wrong.
9:50:14 AM LINK TO THIS POST