Partisan Free Politics

In ancient Greece, newspapers, radio and television provided the foundation necessary for Democracy to be born, thrive and flourish. In his most famous televised State of the Union address, Pericles said, “We… regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs, not as a harmless, but as a useless character”. 2,639 years later, those words enunciated first on Ancient Greek C-Span, still resonate in their grainy black and white footage.

That same mass media model:

• Connected Socrates, Plato and Aristotle with the education and audience necessary for them to further transform the lives of thousands of Greeks from decadent hedonists, to fulfilled and educated citizens.
• Stopped the brutal Roman Empire from crushing thousands of small tribes by raising global conciseness of war-crimes.
• Isaac Newton, John Locke and even Thomas Jefferson would never have had an impact on the world, had it not been for their appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart’s ancestor (and subsequent book sales).
• And who could forget the infamous Hardball interview where Benjamin Franklin told King George III “No Taxation without Representation!”

Indeed, it is these and other historic examples that have affirmed the broadcast media’s place as a cornerstone of democracy, justice and enlightenment throughout the ages. This was the resounding sentiment at the Journalism That Matters conference at George Washington University, Washington D.C. Despite these timeless values, times are changing and technology is now threatening Democracy.

The internets have ushered in an era of widespread distribution, low prices and a deluge of information provided by journalists across the world. The response to this technological transformation, by news orgs has been painfully slow at best. Newspapers are among the largest critics of useful services like Craigslist that provide local classified ads (accusing the free service of pilfering what should be their ad revenue). Meanwhile, citizens are now choosing amongst millions of news outlets – and they are voting with their feet.

Search engine giant Google is taking a page out of the “new media” play book and allowing organizations and persons named in news stories to comment on the stories themselves, thus becoming the acropolis of the internet. News-orgs need to consider this. In an age where I can read and interact with the content, the writer, the organization and/or event in question– why wouldn’t I? I would sooner throw off the “burden” of electricity or modern medicine than I would go back to living in a world where I could only receive yesterday’s news by slow moving truck.

(In the spirit of Rudo, here are some questions)

1. I‘m mostly curious what your opinions are news information, where do you go and why? Newspapers, old media, new media?
2. Do you find blogs interesting engaging? Are they doing Journalism? Which blogs do you read?

(P.S. Thanks to Bill Densmore and the other organizers of the event, excuse my snark, it was a great event!)