Journalists see themselves as cutting out the wittering. Where does that leave the rest of us? I cant remember when I last saw a journalist writing poetry. Their haikus seem, even in war-time, .to consist of “Gotcha!”
Anything popular is often seen as unworthy. Do I smell a rat, or is it the smell of fear that someone else other than the ‘highly trained’ wordsmiths might actually produce something worth reading. Having a go at the ‘proles’ who use Twitter seems to me rather like criticising the electorate for choosing the ‘wrong party’, fearful that there is a chance of democracy actually working. A 90% turnout would not be much of a story.
Graffiti artists were once seen as grubby nuisances but Banksy seems to have elevated it to ‘worthy art’. The same goes for expressing yourself in words. Everyone has to start somewhere. Those who call Twitter wittering must be reading the wrong tweets. Don’t these journalists see they have to apply some judgement?
Everyone is entitled to report on their own lives or voice their opinions. Look out journalists, Here Comes Everybody ! Get a life, have the wit to twit!.
Sian
For a Book Review of Here Comes Everybody ! see earlier Blog.
Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 August 2009
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Blogging By Candlelight Again ( See an early old blog) and the Length of Blogs
Those few who have seen these blogs may have been put off by their length alone, never mind the content. Yesterday one professional journalist gave voice on radio to her opinion that she was depressed by twitter and the blogosphere with the vast amount of banality it encourages. Sorry, I must have missed something in the popular press and have failed to discover the high minded content hidden behind the yob headlines of the red tops. I try to avoid banality, inevitably fail, but at least I have used more words in achieving it when it occurs. I have purposely built some banality in for the journalist concerned, although I have not dignified her by managing to remember her name. She is probably a very good journalist for all I know, but I also think that journalists do not have a monopoly of valid viewpoints and, even in my case, I am entitled to think that there is just a chance that something worthwhile might trickle down from my viewpoint on these beautiful hills.
This is all prompted by the fact that everything I want to write about seems to demand about 600 words. Sadly the blog posted just before this one could have taken even more words, but I think it was well worth a few more words than usual.
It was inspired by the blog I now provide a link to and I am very grateful to its author for having made me get round to writing something I have been meaning to do ever since I started inflicting my blog on unsuspecting surfers. If you ever thought civil libertarians protest too much then take a look at:-
http://monaxle.com/2009/07/08/section-44-in-chatham-high-street/
If you think this is an isolated incident try to rent out Taking Liberties directed by Chris Atkins. It is also widely available to purchase on DVD. See where all the new authoritarianism has come from and where it is all going. We have been through oppressive times before, but never with so much technology in the hands of those who also have all the power. Not voting, keeping quiet and watching your fellow citizens put into vans will lead in turn to your trip in the van, by which time there won’t be anyone left to write a blog about you. All rather far fetched? Yes it might be, and lets hope so, but do you really want to take the risk? Perhaps the power of the people’s internet technology must now be applied in favour of civil liberties so as to counter the State technology and rules which steal them. It is working with consumer campaigns that have already been successful against M&S, HSBC and now a mobile phone directory inquiry service. Mark Thomas has already started. Why should politicians with so much power need to worry about your liberties when they have been so busy of late taking so many liberties of their own? No more than the general citizenry who never go out late and never experience the use of police powers exercised against them. From my experience, down too many years I care to remember, they will not have found the encounter a model of customer service. As great libertarians of the past have said, the best citizens are those who are critical of their government and the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Being critical should not lead to your loyalty being questioned. The dream is still worth keeping alive. Banal? I do hope so, but I still believe such things nonetheless.
Dacier
This is all prompted by the fact that everything I want to write about seems to demand about 600 words. Sadly the blog posted just before this one could have taken even more words, but I think it was well worth a few more words than usual.
It was inspired by the blog I now provide a link to and I am very grateful to its author for having made me get round to writing something I have been meaning to do ever since I started inflicting my blog on unsuspecting surfers. If you ever thought civil libertarians protest too much then take a look at:-
http://monaxle.com/2009/07/08/section-44-in-chatham-high-street/
If you think this is an isolated incident try to rent out Taking Liberties directed by Chris Atkins. It is also widely available to purchase on DVD. See where all the new authoritarianism has come from and where it is all going. We have been through oppressive times before, but never with so much technology in the hands of those who also have all the power. Not voting, keeping quiet and watching your fellow citizens put into vans will lead in turn to your trip in the van, by which time there won’t be anyone left to write a blog about you. All rather far fetched? Yes it might be, and lets hope so, but do you really want to take the risk? Perhaps the power of the people’s internet technology must now be applied in favour of civil liberties so as to counter the State technology and rules which steal them. It is working with consumer campaigns that have already been successful against M&S, HSBC and now a mobile phone directory inquiry service. Mark Thomas has already started. Why should politicians with so much power need to worry about your liberties when they have been so busy of late taking so many liberties of their own? No more than the general citizenry who never go out late and never experience the use of police powers exercised against them. From my experience, down too many years I care to remember, they will not have found the encounter a model of customer service. As great libertarians of the past have said, the best citizens are those who are critical of their government and the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Being critical should not lead to your loyalty being questioned. The dream is still worth keeping alive. Banal? I do hope so, but I still believe such things nonetheless.
Dacier
Saturday, 9 May 2009
Book Review: 'Here Comes Everybody!'
Book Review: 'Here Comes Everybody; How things Change when Everybody Comes Together'by Clay Shirky: Penguin Books [London] 2009 344 pp including acknowledgments, bibliography/notes and index. £9.99.
This book is essential reading for those involved in politics, pressure or special interest groups. The internet means that small and large groups alike can come together and pursue their collective aims. The bloggers, FaceBookers and MySpacers escape the cell. (See earlier posting).
From business theory the author leads us through to the dynamics of networks, communications between groups and web communities, and the sociology of the web. The developments which have made sites like Wikipedea, My Space and Face Book possible are chronicled. Perhaps the most significant development for the individual computer literate is the new ease of publication which makes this posting possible. Without the net it would have to be placed with a journal willing to take it. The reviewer would not be taken on trust so a good contact, track record or luck would be needed to get it into print. Without factors such as these it would not be read by anyone other than the reviewer. Now, as explained by Shirky, we are all our own publishers at no great expense and no risk of wasting time or the costs of failure. All the conventional routes are avoided. With the aid of one or two connections it might be seen by many. Examples of such escapes into a wider context are given as examples of how things have changed. The earthquake in China, the Tsunami and the London bombings are some of the examples of how the new technology breaks the news so quickly and often gets things done.
The strength this book is found in the way the author manages to bring many different topics together to show how a new way of doing things has emerged. For the outsider the description of how Wikipedea was developed shows the potential of collaborative work taking place well away from the conventional routines of publishing. If you ever wondered why the age of the ‘amateur’ writer is so looked down on by conventional journalists, then you need not wonder long. According to Shirky they are waiting in line for their turn to disappear like the scribes before them.
Examples of the ease of organising to express grievances are also given. To take on a government or a company as an individual will be no more than a stand on principle, which brings no results, unless others take up the cause. But with the ease of joining together the game has changed. The students who had taken out accounts with HSBC were not pleased to hear, at short notice, that their interest free overdraft facility was to be withdrawn. Dispersed customers were found through Facebook and HSBC suddenly found there was a co-ordinated force planning to demonstrate at their HQ. The plan was scrapped. Only this week M&S conceded on the big bra premium they were charging.
Those parts of the book which go into computer programme development and the theoretical material could be hard going for some. but these glimpses into different worlds are worth it. You are reading about a major convergence of factors which cannot be reversed, or stopped. With an internet connection we can all be in the crowd and hear the cry, ‘look out, here comes everybody!’. Will it be a really ‘Open Society’?. ( See Karl Poppers book) Is this a new mob rule or a correction of an imbalance of power? Is this a new democracy? One thing seems certain, the new tools of liberty are out of the box and they can never be put back. However, they might be difficult to find should the lights go out.
Dacier
This book is essential reading for those involved in politics, pressure or special interest groups. The internet means that small and large groups alike can come together and pursue their collective aims. The bloggers, FaceBookers and MySpacers escape the cell. (See earlier posting).
From business theory the author leads us through to the dynamics of networks, communications between groups and web communities, and the sociology of the web. The developments which have made sites like Wikipedea, My Space and Face Book possible are chronicled. Perhaps the most significant development for the individual computer literate is the new ease of publication which makes this posting possible. Without the net it would have to be placed with a journal willing to take it. The reviewer would not be taken on trust so a good contact, track record or luck would be needed to get it into print. Without factors such as these it would not be read by anyone other than the reviewer. Now, as explained by Shirky, we are all our own publishers at no great expense and no risk of wasting time or the costs of failure. All the conventional routes are avoided. With the aid of one or two connections it might be seen by many. Examples of such escapes into a wider context are given as examples of how things have changed. The earthquake in China, the Tsunami and the London bombings are some of the examples of how the new technology breaks the news so quickly and often gets things done.
The strength this book is found in the way the author manages to bring many different topics together to show how a new way of doing things has emerged. For the outsider the description of how Wikipedea was developed shows the potential of collaborative work taking place well away from the conventional routines of publishing. If you ever wondered why the age of the ‘amateur’ writer is so looked down on by conventional journalists, then you need not wonder long. According to Shirky they are waiting in line for their turn to disappear like the scribes before them.
Examples of the ease of organising to express grievances are also given. To take on a government or a company as an individual will be no more than a stand on principle, which brings no results, unless others take up the cause. But with the ease of joining together the game has changed. The students who had taken out accounts with HSBC were not pleased to hear, at short notice, that their interest free overdraft facility was to be withdrawn. Dispersed customers were found through Facebook and HSBC suddenly found there was a co-ordinated force planning to demonstrate at their HQ. The plan was scrapped. Only this week M&S conceded on the big bra premium they were charging.
Those parts of the book which go into computer programme development and the theoretical material could be hard going for some. but these glimpses into different worlds are worth it. You are reading about a major convergence of factors which cannot be reversed, or stopped. With an internet connection we can all be in the crowd and hear the cry, ‘look out, here comes everybody!’. Will it be a really ‘Open Society’?. ( See Karl Poppers book) Is this a new mob rule or a correction of an imbalance of power? Is this a new democracy? One thing seems certain, the new tools of liberty are out of the box and they can never be put back. However, they might be difficult to find should the lights go out.
Dacier
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