We the media and cult of the amateur

Dan Gillmor (2006)Andrew Keen (2007)

Year 13Monday 26th March 2012

Julian Assange

What did you find out? What did you question? What is your opinion?

Objectives

By the end of the lesson you should have;Understood Keen’s theory and viewsUnderstood Gillmor’s theory and viewsApplied and challenged the theory through

class discussion and/or debateResearch and Present your case studies

Starter

Where do you/your parents learn about the news?

Where do they get their sources from?

The evolution 1945: People gathered around radios

1963: Kennedy’s death via TV (earlier newspapers and magazines)

Sep 11 2001: News 24, internet

21st Century: Blogs, IM, Chat, internet on phones

Gillmor

We the Media: Grassroots journalism, by the people for the people

‘Journalism transformation from a twentieth century mass-media structure to something profoundly more grassroots and democratic.’ (Gillmor)

The Cult of the AmateurAndrew Keen

‘There will be over five hundreds million blogs by 2010, collectively corrupting and confusing popular opinion about everything from politics, to commerce to arts and culture. Blogs have become so dizzyingly infinite that they’ve undermined our sense of what is true and false...’

Think point

Can everyone be a journalist?

Not everyone is a journalist‘...these days kids can’t tell the difference

between credible news by objective professional journalists and what they read on joeshmoe.blogspot.com...posting is just another person’s version of the truth; every fiction is just another person’s version of the facts.’ (Keen)

Regular people are Journalists

‘...news was being produces by regular people who had something to say and show, and not solely by the “official” news organisations that had traditionally decided how the first draft of history would look. The first draft was being written, in part, by the former audience. It was possible – it was inevitable – because of the internet.’ (Gillmor)

What are we Talking about?‘...the internet has become a mirror to

ourselves. Rather than using it to seek news, information, or culture, we use it to actually BE the news, the information, the culture.’ (Keen)

The BIG Media ‘...treated the news as a

lecture. We told you what the news was. You brought it in, or you didn’t.’

‘Tomorrow’s news reporting and production will be more of a conversation, or a seminar.’ (Gillmor)

Anti-BIG Media

Julian Assage Noam Chomsky John Pilger Charlie Brooker

Today

Is it just the ‘BIG media’ that sources our news now?

Think about where you get your information from?

Where do you read about the news?

The 3 Major Constituencies

JournalistsAccuracy and fairnessImportant Shape larger conversationsGather facts and report them

NewsmakersRich and powerful discovering new vulnerabilitiesNew ways to get out their messagesAllies (politics)

The former audienceOnce the consumersHelping create a massive conversationGrassroots becoming professionalsMore voices and more options

Gillmor

The Big media

Aim: to make high profitGreed

Readers and advertisementsCare more for advertisements than quality

journalism

Who will do big investigationsPay expensive lawyersExpose

But is anarchy a solution to good news?Gillmor

Big brother

The government censors all information Politian's shut off information that the public

need to know.

Is the grassroots journalism information tracked?

Gillmor

Who’s democracy? ‘a rather narrow and very privileged slice of

polity – those who are educated enough to take part in the wired conversation, who have the technical skills, who are affluent enough to have the time and equipment .’ Tim Stites

Gillmor

We are MonkeysWe are just monkeys to the neo

digital world. Dancing to the world of the internet.

‘What is more disgusting that the fact that millions of us willingly tune in to (youtube) such nonsense each day is that some Web sites are making monkeys out of us without our even knowing it.’ (Keen)

Is it Democratic?

‘The rise of the citizen-journalist will help us listen. The ability of anyone to make the news will give new voice to people who’ve felt voiceless – and those words we need to hear. They are showing all of us – citizen, journalist, newsmaker-new ways of talking, of learning.’ (Gillmor)

Is it Democratic?

Keen calls it ‘collective intelligence’e.g. Google, the results it gives you is the

sites which have been clicked on the most ‘...ninety million questions we collectively ask

google each day; in other words, it just tells us what we already know.’ (Keen)

So what new knowledge/wisdom are we really acquiring?

Discussion

Has new technology made the media more democratic?

Case study Have a look at various news sources

Online ‘BIG media’ newspapersOnline Blogs

Examples to compare (non BIG media)The new significance Media LensWiki LeaksZ NetThe Progressive (.org)The New significance

How is the news content different? Whose voice is heard? What issues do they talk about? How accurate is the news source?