Paper and Pen In Hand

Is print dead? In my opinion, if we are at the point in our society where we are asking ourselves that question, then we are hastily laying the wreath on the tombstone before the death has even occurred. I believe that print will survive as long as we allow our imaginations to survive. For me, the death of print means the death of literary creativity.

 

On Fastcompany.com, a blogger and a print writer go head to head to decide whether or not print is in fact dead. The blogger claims “ Print is where words go to die.” This sentence made me swell with anger. I am certain that the words of Hemmingway, Steinbeck, Poe and Fitzgerald are not dead, even for my generation. Their words are more powerful then any half-assed blog. Print is where words are alive and well, print is where words survive, online media is the slaughterhouse.

 

Publishing 2.0.com also addresses this same issue, and an interesting concept was raised. The writer claims that it’s because of how print is distributed now that is one of the key factors of why print is “dying”. That we would much rather read electronically, rather then on pages. But what can be more impersonal and cold then reading a great novel or story on a laptop. Do people still not enjoy curling up with a book on a cold night, wrapping themselves in blankets and endless pages?

 

Print is not dead, but it is on its last stand. But I promise to be one of the few to defend it. And at the end of the final battle, when print truly does die someday, I will be there strewn across the battlefield, with a piece of paper in one hand, and a pen in the other. 

Can You Hear Me?

Freedom of speech is a good thing freedom of speech on the Internet can be nauseating. I sit here trying to think of a good topic for my blog this week, and whenever I generate a good idea I type it into Google search. But I am sadly swamped by countless blogs floating around online.  I am proud that we take advantage of our rights as Americans, but it seems today that making your voice heard via a blog is steadily growing more futile with every passing day.

Anne Helmond, a fellow blogger, is also perplexed by the number blogs that seem to be sprouting weeds.

            “I don’t think the blogosphere is quite mature yet. Technorati currently states it is tracking over 112.8 million blogs, a number which obviously does not include all the 72.82 million Chinese blogs as counted by The China Internet Network Information Center.”

            I ran into an interesting website while working on this blog, that probably few have seen. It’s a bit cynical, interesting nonetheless. Blogs are pointless!

            I often wonder how this continuous growth of blogs online will affect journalism. I wonder if someone besides Susan Brockus is ever curious enough to read what I have to say. But then I realize that I my blog is just one small voice in an endless sea of countless others. 

The Day Literature Died

Tim Berners Lee, I hate you. I hope you’re happy with the Web that you have spun for the world. But remember this, the day you created the Web, was the day that literature died. Go ahead, enjoy all you accolades, and reap the seeds that you have sown. But one day, when the magic and wonder of books are gone, get ready for a lot of fingers to be pointed in your direction.

 

A story from the New York Times Online edition proves that the Internet is having an effect on our reading habits.

 

“What we are losing in this country and presumably around the world is the sustained, focused, linear attention developed by reading.”

 

Not only is the Web destroying our ability to sit and enjoy books, but authors are suffering as well.  The Times Online site reports that piracy, which is made possible by the advancement of the Web, is making it harder for writers to profit from their talents. Just like music files are transferred illegally, whole novels are being stolen as well. How is my generation supposed to create great works like Steinbeck and Hemmingway did? Will we ever see writers and novels of this great stature again?

 

Mr. Lee, if I had a time machine, I would go back in time, grab a posse of writers, and beat you senseless. I am aware that the Web has great advancements to our society, but at the same time it is killing on of our most cherished aspects, our imagination. I leave you Mr. Lee with this quote from author Ray Bradbury.

 

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”

Newspapers Cringe, Magazines Binge

Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro. When you think of these two names you think of great actors who have co-stared in several movies together. But you might not think of them as metaphors between two traditional mediums caught in the death grip of the web. Think this is going to be a stretch? I’ll let you be the judge.

 

Joe Pesci represents the newspaper industry. Its reaction has been panic, uncontrolled explosions of f-words, irrationally trying to reinvent the wheel. While in the background magazines, symbolized by Robert De Niro, are reserved, confident, and think of methodical ways to attack the problem. Since the dawn of the web, newspapers have wallowed in a predicted doomsday while the magazine industry, also a print media, has stepped up to the challenge.

 

Evidence can be seen in the ticking heart of the world’s media machine, New York City, NY. In a City Journal article, Thomas Hirschfled describes how traditional media companies are beginning to see the web as an opportunity, and not as a threat. It shows that magazine companies, along with other print medias in the city, are learning how to learn from their disadvantages and take advantage of the pros of the Web.

 

Magazines have also realized that as the technology of the web advances, so will their opportunities to offer more to their readers. An example is the Flip Viewer technology.  According to their website, this program…

 

“…is a media file that can be opened and viewed on a computer as a traditional magazine. Special technology makes the pages “flip” over, just like a real magazine would. As a reader examines the first couple of pages, the rest of the magazine pages load. By the time he is ready to proceed to the next page, every subsequent page will have been streamed and fully loaded for his reading pleasure.”

 

So while the newspaper industry continues it’s frantic orchestra of obscenities, magazines patiently let the change come, and then makes a killing, in readership that is. 

So Easy A Caveman Can Do It

Despite the animosity that some journalists have for bloggers, this could be a rare case where the amateur students of the field can teach the Senseis’ a new lesson. Journalists should not try to beat bloggers by re-inventing the wheel, but beat them at their own game. If they learn why bloggers are so popular, while applying their own credentials, there could be a bright future for professional journalists. But they have to be willing to set the boxing gloves down and learn a couple things first.

 

The first thing that journalists can learn from bloggers is that they provide a open marketplace of ideas for both professionals and amateurs. Bruce Bartlett, a blogger who writes for the economistsview.com, best describes this concept.

 

“It’s like being in a seminar room with some of the smartest people on the planet, where we are all searching for answers to the same questions, but coming at them with very different experiences and philosophical perspectives.”

 

Bartlett also makes a point that factual errors can be addressed more efficiently, and at a faster pace then print media. With millions of eyeballs constantly checking and rechecking facts, those who are not careful or are lying will be found and ousted in no time.

 

Lesson number two, and probably the most important lesson, is that people can connect to bloggers in a very personal and powerful way. Their writings are often read more like a conversation rather then a lecture. They can also connect people from near and far for a common purpose.

 

A perfect example of this is “90DayJane”. Through her blog and her connection to well over 150,000 people online, she was able to cope with her problems. This shows that blogs do behold the power of influence, and that people do respond to them in large numbers. Journalists, it’s time to beat them, join them, or figure out a new way to re-invent that wheel. 

Chasing The Dragon

Karl Marx once said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” Today many believe that it is television that is the new opiate. But I would have to argue that very soon the Internet will become a more potent opiate that anyone could have imagined.

 

The first reason I suggest this is because every day our virtual world and real world are slowly meshing into a single entity. For an example, last night I finally asked this girl I have been seeing to be my girlfriend, and luckily she said yes. This morning I broke the news to my roommates, and the first thing they said was “ Wait, are you guys facebook official yet?” In my generation it seems as important that a relationship is established online, as well as in the actual world.

 

The second reason I believe that the Internet is becoming an opiate for the masses is because the technology allows for what Roger Keenan calls “digital narcissism”. In Greek mythology, Narcissus spent his days gazing at his reflection in a pool of water. But today that pool of water is now a computer screen. Youtube delivers endless channels of millions of voices trying to gain attention in the online ocean, with little chance of being heard. Yet that does not stop them from gazing endlessly into the waters.

 

Avatars are a further reflection of “digital narcissism”. They allow people to forget their daily troubles and lets them step into a world to call their own.  This issue is addressed in a report from npr.org when Becky Glasure, a 27-year-old mother talks about her avatar.

 

“I feel like I’m this short person with this squeaky little Filipino voice and nobody wants to pay attention to me. So I picked the biggest, blackest guy I know.” 

 

It seems that as we begin the early years of this century, there seems to be an inevitable crash course between who we are, and who we are online. Will we catch ourselves before we are completely addicted, or will we continue to chase our virtual dragons? 

“Two-Face”book

All right, that’s it, if I have to be the one to say it, then I will be “that guy”, I have had it! Facebook has officially solidified its position as an axis of evil in the world. As the “face” of the site has changed over the last couple of years, it has grown from a community for college students, to a cult for the creepers.  In the beginning, Facebook was an innocent, modest social networking community that was a haven from the jaded Myspace.

 

But as time marched on, Facebook went from “ this is who I am” to “ This is what I have been, am, and will be doing in my personal life”. It’s users flutter around like moths, blindly flying around with the idea that whatever happens on facebook, stays on facebook. But that is not the case.

           

According to a CNN.com technology report, I am not the only one who is disgruntled with facebook’s transformation.  In the report, ireporter Sara Campbell describes her frustration in a colorful metaphor.

 

            “Facebook was once the classy alternative to Myspace. Now it’s the classy girlfriend you once loved, but you begin to feel distant from because she wants to move into your house and tell you what colors to paint your walls and how to arrange your furniture, You’re given an ultimatum — marry me or it’s over. I wonder how many of us will give into the demands?”

 

 These changes make it easier for people to track your comments, pictures, and posts because they have become the main focus on your profile page. Instead of information about who you are and your personality, the profile page has turned into a 24 news hour cycle of everything you do on the site. Some who read this may say, “we’ll wait a minute, my profile is set to private, I’m fine.” But if you believe this then you’re a moth blinded by the illusion of safety.

 

In another report from CNN.com, the intelligence agencies have begun to implement spies onto the network. With the use of the Patriot Act, any law enforcement agency can access your profile with ease. And when they access your once believed online haven, whatever is on your profile, is now in front of their eyes.

 

So who is with me? Will anyone join me to change this status quo? Or will we continue to flutter around blindly in the dark?

Terrorist Attack 2.0

In this post 9/11 era there seems to be an overall inclination that Al Qaeda will execute another terrorist attack in the United States. But instead of twin towers, is it too far out of the realm of possibility that the Internet is on a terrorist target list? The answer is a resounding no. But knocking out all of the United States’ Internet capabilities would require planning and execution on a scale much greater then the attacks of September 11^th, 2001.

 

In a BBC News article, three American scientists from Ohio State University and Dr. Tony Grubesic address this possibility. Dr. Grubesic, an assistant professor of Geography at the University of Cincinnati, described the Internet as an air traffic system.

 

  “If weather stops or delays traffic in a major airport hub, like Chicago’s O’Hare, air passengers throughout the country may feel the effects,” said Dr Grubesic, “even if they are not traveling to Chicago.”

 

But despite the failure of a single major hub, the researchers went on to say that if one hub failed, the flow of information could be routed to other ones. So a loss of a major hub would cause a ripple effect in the immediate and surrounding areas, but the rest of the country would ultimately be unaffected. But there is a growing concern about how much information we share via the Internet. An analysis on cert.org best describes this growing problem.

 

“The trend towards dependence on information and communications systems is accelerating rather than slowing down – as is the gap between the security challenges and the awareness of them. In fact, with the expansion and growth of technology simple dependence is evolving into interdependence. What happens to one system now has the potential to effect operations on myriad other systems that may only be peripherally related to the target of the initial intrusion.”

 

In other words, the more we grow to rely on the Internet, the larger the collateral damage will be if there is a terrorist attack on the Internet. But how exactly could they achieve this goal?

 

The first plausible way would be to cut the undersea Internet cables that connect the United States to the rest of the world. But it would be very difficult to cut every cable at the same time. A more plausible scenario would be a highly coordinated attack on all the major hubs in all the major cities in the United States.  But with the Patriot Act and other eavesdropping programs, this plan would be almost impossible to pull off unnoticed.  But then again, there was a time when we thought the events of 9/11 wouldn’t happen either. 

Welcome To The Jungle

Whenever I have to use the Internet for research in a class, I feel like I step into a jungle as soon as I double click my browser. A vast jungle in which I have to cut through endless information in order to find the truth. But who is telling the truth? And who is just merely trying to push an agenda?

 

In the years before the Internet, information was guarded by communication gatekeepers, and filtered for the public in order to inform them what they should know. Today in this jungle the users have become the gatekeepers, filtering and distributing information at ease whether it’s true or not.  Andrew Keen, the author of The Cult of the Amateur, best describes this problem in his book.  At one point he compares Internet bloggers and users to T.H. Huxley’s “ Infinite monkey theory.”

 

“ Today’s technology hooks up all those monkeys up with all those typewriters. Except in our Web 2.0, typewriters aren’t quite typewriters, but rather networked personal computers, and the monkeys aren’t quite monkeys, but rather Internet users. And instead of creating masterpieces, these millions and millions of exuberant monkeys- many with no more talent in the creative arts then our primate cousins-are creating an endless digital forest of mediocrity.”

 

It is imperative that our society has professional and well-established gatekeepers to filter our information. They are there to protect society from becoming sheep that can be easily herded towards a misconception. An example of this is wikipedia, an extremely popular online encyclopedia which anyone can write and change articles.

 

“ The Idea was that anyone could go to this web site and just by clicking a button start working on an article, all barriers were torn down,” said Jimmy Wells, founder of wikipedia, in an interview with CBS News.

 

But with these barriers torn down, the content of any article can be altered to fit the identity of someone’s point of view. The truth should be a solid ground, not something that belongs in the eye of the beholder. It is the job of professional scholars, specialists, and journalists to set the standard for what qualifies as “credible information”. If this changes, then we will surely become exuberant monkeys, lost in a jungle, with the illusion of knowledge. 

The Tortoise and the Hare

As a journalism student, I often get asked about the fate of the newspaper industry. They ask, “ Are newspapers dying or dead?”. I tell them it’s not a matter of life or death, but rather who is going to stay in the race. I tell them that this is a classic story of the tortoise and the hare. The newspaper industry plays the role of the old, well-established, reliable tortoise, moving at the same pace that it has for decades. The hare in this story is the fast paced, never slowing Internet.

 

 

But in this story the tortoise will not be victorious. Does that mean they are already dead? Mark Morford, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle’s online site says it best.

 

 

“So are newspapers dying? Is this the question? The answer is: of course not. Then again, yes. Just not in the way you think. They are merely shifting, peeling back, juggling approaches and reorganizing ideas, all in order to be reborn. ”

 

 

What Morford is trying to say is that newspapers are not dead, but they are hastily trying to evolve with the ever-growing Internet. But will they stand the test of time? According to a 2005 Business Week article, they have and will.

 

 

“ Newspapers are cockroaches…. Despite decades of doomsayers, newspapers prospered through radio, through TV, and cable, through video games, through the internet.”

 

 

The newspaper industry is resilient, but it will need to adapt to in order to stay in the race with the Internet.