The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

3 responses to “Fear of the future”

1. 

   John

   September 25, 2009

   Here’s some ideas for responses. Division of labour – you want a surgeon, a specialist, to do your surgery, not a GP. Equally, the citizen blogger can specialise in a way no journalist can. Better examples than Wat Tyler’s blog include the ScienceBlogs Select – their coverage of science is light years ahead of the mainstream media.
   Another approach is to question the comparison with surgery – a journalists specialism is writing rather than the subject they write about.
   Another approach is to question the incentives. Journalists must sell copy, which means controversy – if it bleeds it leads. Most bloggers don’t make a living from their blogs, so their incentives are different.
   Fourth, it should be recognised that some bloggers are journalists – freelancers who do earn a living from their blogs – like the usually excellent Michael Yon. New media doesnt mean an end to professionalism, just to dead business models.
   Ultimately, though, the best blogs are kept honest by their readership, which forms a community around the blog. It’s the difference between a broadcast and a conversation. Are there bad blogs? Yes. Are there sensationalist blogs? Of course. But despite a woeful lack of journalists credentials, where are the most informative sources, written for for the layperson on science, the court system, education, economics, politics, war, mathematics – in fact just about any subject you care to name? On the internet.

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2. 

   jameshigham

   September 25, 2009

   That woman’s prejudice is, of course, fuelled by gthe MSM themselves.

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3. 

   Polaris

   September 26, 2009

   Has she looked into Wikinomics and more importantly the role of polymaths, not specialists, in mankind’s major advances since ancient times? Moreover Journalism is a job which requires very little learned knowledge, and other than the ability to convey collated information in written form only general knowledge common to many of us is re. Surgery at the very least requires experience in technique and a good understanding of human physiology and biology – specialist knowledge.
   We learn good written communication skills and reasoned thought as a by product of academic study – anybody with a good basic education, and a mind of their own can become a journalist/writer/whatever – how good they are is subjective.
   A poor similie for sure, infantile and over simplistic.

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