what i'd said then was, currently, the MSM is put down because it filters via editors and the like as well as less overt or manifest (as opposed to latent) methods of restricting the information that gets to the public.
yeah. it sucks.
so the cure all was the free for all of web 2.0. except that there is so much shit pumped out in a day -- and the spammers and twisters of the market haven't even truly taken over yet -- that you will end up with filters anyway. you will end up in your isolated little bubble of people you trust to filter your news -- or you will end up relying on big, advertising-underwr5itten, product-placement-underwritten sites that filter your news (e.g., jezebel for feminism, boing boing for tech, so forth) and you've got the same fucking problem all over again.
zippo in terms of democracy.
and as far as getting your voice heard, as shirky has it, total bullshit because it's a fluke that nobodies land million dollar book deals or make a ton of money on some social networking venture -- a fluke that happens in the transition between the old and new. once the new is established, the 95/5 rule (as opposed to pareto's 80/20 rule( of the internet is established. 5% dominant and the rest of the 95% piss at hurricanes, twitting and tweeting and flicking and facebookering. hanging around with their buds just like they already do.
everyone pointing and saying "look! a new day dawns! democracy. power to the people!"
horse shit.
so, the bullshit factor is at play. no one told you that the cell phone was going to revolutionize democracy, nor the DVD player or the DVR or whathefuckever.
and meanwhile, academics sit around writing papers about this shit and they are about as technical as a nudibranch and, thus, understand jack all about it.
At 11:57 AM 8/13/2009, Alan Rudy wrote:
> But isn't >40% still less than the percentage in everyday conversation?
>Did they do a percentage relative to blog posts? contemporary local
>newspaper stories? talk radio or TV?
>Ever listen to other people on the phone, walking past you, on the subway,
>yeesh.
>Alan (who's utterly convinced that each and everything he says, writes,
>posts and tweets is meaningful drivel).
>
>On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 11:48 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> http://www.pearanalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Twitter-Study-August-2009.pdf
> >
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk