Sunday, February 22, 2009

What value does Web 2.0 bring to the news industry?

Yesterday, I finished up an email interview with a graduate student (and a former colleague) in Emerson's master's program in publishing and writing. He asked some very thoughtful questions that really got me thinking about some of the issues facing the news industry. I am excerpting some of my answers on my blog, as they might be interesting to a wider audience.

I am going to break up the answers into separate posts to make them more search-engine friendly.

The first question:

What value do you feel Web 2.0 brings to the news industry?

My answer:
I love the idea that the old way of doing news – the one-way, mass communications model that put professional gatekeepers, experts, and people with connections in positions of great power – is being dismantled.

Web 2.0 is proof that the audience has power and knowledge that is often more relevant to understanding news than the so-called pros. I like the fact that Web 2.0 technologies empower individuals and lets new networks and communities have a say in the way news is generated and analyzed. The idea that it's possible for me to understand a news event based on the unfiltered video and text accounts of ordinary people at the scene – often amplified by the opinions and connections of other ordinary people -- is very, very significant. It has already begun to erode society's traditional power centers and will continue to help our democracy evolve in new ways.

Of course, these technologies and the ways in which they impact society can be very disruptive and even harmful. Mob mentality sometimes takes over in unpleasant ways by promoting false information and stifling certain opinions. I also dislike the way that these networks and technologies are often manipulated by powerful interests, and undermined by a culture of anonymity that often brings down the level of discourse.
Some of my other answers from the interview:

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