Mainstream journalism is the stuff that happens in newspapers, tv, magazines, and radio. Some who work in the industry are gnashing their teeth over the power of the Weblog, protesting against the shift in power.
Here is all it takes to understand what's happening: The Internet is the great leveller. All change now occuring can be understood when seen in that context. The individual is on par with the corporation. The credability of the CBS newsroom is brought to the same level of a one-man blog, like Little Green Footballs.
("PowerShift" was written in 1990, years before the advent of the Web browser, yet Alvin Toffler managed to predict the shift in power from the large entity to the small. I read the book during the summer of 1992, and it helped me feel confident of the step I had taken a year earlier, becoming self-employed. Since then, I've seen my one-man publishing company survive quite well, while most of all the big, color, glossy CAD magazines stumbled and failed. The power shifted.)
Who's Smarter Now?
The power is shifting for journalists, and they hate it. A hundred years ago, there were few who had an education beyond early high school. It was community leaders like pastors and journalists who went on to university, and knew more than the population at large. A newspaper could report on events and the bulk of the population accepted that version of events, because they knew no better and had no acccess to alternative news sources.
Since the 1960s, the knowledge base has tilted in both areas -- knowledge and accessibility.
Pastors and journalists still attain knowledge from attending university, but the general population does as well. The knowledge of journalists is generalized, but the general population tends to have s specialized knowledge. In any given field, they know more than do journalists.
(An example: last year, the transist system went on strike in Vancouver. A week before the strike, CBC News predicted traffic chaos the first day of the strike. Monday morning, as the strike began, the national newcast from CBC Toronto continued to report the "traffic chaos" taking place in Vancouver. Meanwhile, the local newscast from CBC Vancouver reported smooth saling. As a former transportation engineer, I knew that bus strikes make cars flow better, because transit busses imped traffic flow.)
In their priviledged position, journalists are loathe to admit failings. Notice the size and location of correction notices. Read about the boasts that "four editors" check a reporter's work. They are too busy finding failings in others to recognize their own failings.
The Internet gives the general population three powers it lacked before:
- Access to alternative news sources, whether newspapers in other countries or differing points of view.
- Access to vast collections of knowledge for free, blowing down the cost barrier imposed by universities and encyclopedias, and their limited range of knowledge.
- Ability to make points-of-view known to the worldwide audience.
The 1960s ushered in terrible wrongs, but it also liberated minds from the old school that said, "People in power are right." The Internet makes it easier to retort: "You're wrong." Or as The Who sang, "We won't be fooled again."
Journlists are fond of helping change the rules, but now they need to understand the rules have changed for them. How do they intend to survive in a world that's more knowledgeable, and able to demand accountability.
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