Ian Johnson, Out NowMay 27, 2007
There is a fascinating debate about to break online and in traditional news media.
Andrew Keen has been a first-hand observer of, and commentator on, Silicon Valley technologies, and the market and social impacts that web 2.0 - is having, as evidenced by the rise and rise of social media networking on internet sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and bebo.
More than that though, Keen is about to become a very noticed voice on the news media landscape with his assessment that the impacts of the new networks formed by social media are not adding to, but are beginning to actually damage our culture.
Andrew Keen's new book The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture is released next week in the US market, and is beginning to make significant waves in traditional media and online in blogs and other web 2.0 social media.
We think the rise of social media and web 2.0 technologies are a major social and media revolution, and the genie is well and truly out of the bottle.
Keen is making major important observations about how the new media landscape is changing everything. He raises the idea that the news of these web 2.0 impacts on culture and media is not necessarily for the general long term good of society's culture and traditional cultural institutions including traditional media, such as newspapers and books.
In relation to journalism, we think he is part correct. The need for strong journalism in the gay market and the general markets, for news, for entertainment, for business, for all forms of knowledge for research - will only increase in a new world drowning in information. What we think will see journalism not only survive and potentially stregthen its social role is the increased need for the one thing that created journalism in the first place - the public need for credible sources.
The lesbian and gay market are keen early adopters of new technology without parallel.
Out Now has been tracking lesbian and gay market developments over 15 years now, and have watched as the gay market has led the general market in the uptake of each new technology.
From mobile telephones, to internet access, to web 2.0 social networking - lesbians and gay customers live online. And that is increasingly where our work is taking us and our clients.
There is a very interesting post on the impending release of Keen's book 'Cult of the amateur - How the internet is killing our culture' on Clay Shirky's blog. Shirky was on a discussion panel about Keen's book last month, and was supposed to be on the opposing side to his argument, but found himself defending Keen and his new 'Cult of the amateur' book, at least in points.
Personally I think that this is going to be a very interesting month as the market discusses freely for the first time opposing views to the prevailing one that has said for some years that new technologies are improving society and improving access to culture.
Perhaps some aspects of web 2.0 might actually degrade culture and its institutions too.
I am intrigued by the democratic side of things.
I am not so sure that in the area of specialist knowledge, or even simply reliable knowledge this current trend is the future though. Most major schools no longer trust Wikipedia as a reference source for credible information, for example.
The open model is flawed if the topics being written about require at least some level of working knowledge of the topic.
The "mass amateurization of journalism" is a dangerous thing for all where the quality of the information being presented lacks that which has been the hallmark of serious journalistic endeavour since its beginnings - credibility.
When being interviewed by journalists, I am always assessing how well they have understood our business and the targeted niche market we operate in - the gay consumer market. The ones that give me the greatest confidence are the ones that have undertaken proper research of our market to at least some extent. The ones that I get nervous about are the ones whose research is clearly minimal or based on some online falsehoods about what 'gay marketing' is about.
Personally I think the future is going to see a move into 2.0+ technologies by name brand media that the consumer can trust and rely upon. The rest will become the equivalent of the global village square. Good for a gossip, or even just like 'Speakers Corner' in olde England. Journalism grew out of such spaces and I think it will evolve to become Journalism 2.0 and adapt with the information delivery platforms.
I actually think the need for, and the functions of, professionalism journalism become stronger than ever in an information-drenched world.
We are just witnessing the pangs of a transition of change to new media systems, not the death in society of the need for a journalism that still delivers that one thing the cult of the amateur never can - credibility.
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