and other social media sites are both a source of unfiltered
information and a venue for public discussion, we still look to CNN,
the BBC and their ilk to add context and meaning to this flood of data.
And when they fail us, we demand more of them.
This is actually an example, not of the Internet killing journalism, but of people using the Internet’s tools and traditional media working out to create a picture. You know, I go nuts every time somebody opines that new technology makes us lazy because if anything I think it makes us work twice as hard for our info. Instead of me sitting back and opening the paper and trusting that it’s going to give me all the info I could ever need on Iran, I now read the paper, surf around the blogs, check actual Tehran-area Twitter feeds, look at Flickr photos, and watch the BBC America newscast on cable, all in order to attempt to understand what the unholy blue fuck is going on over there.
A lot of people probably resent that, and wish the newspaper was all they needed, or that they could learn everything they needed to know from the local news. A lot of people probably think they can learn everything they need to know from the local news, which in Chicago particularly scares the living shit out of me. Granted, it can seem sometimes like there’s too much to keep up with, but on balance, I’d much rather too much information than too little.
Via Gawker.
A.