Journalists are asking themselves who they are now that the internet and digital recording technology is making everyone a citizen journalist.
They ask: whats the difference between ‘old’ and ‘new’ journalism. They call this the difference between vertical and flat news.
It questions the line between deliverer and receiver of information, the journalist and the audience, and who is the authority and why.
Essentially journalism, news, media are terms for how we communicate whether its over a cuppa with a friend or via breaking world news.
Vertical news is news from above, from authorities and experts, while flat news is the information and communication that happens everywhere from everyone. With access to flat news, most of us have the opportunity to shape and interpret the fantastic parade of life’s events for ourselves. I wonder whether this means that as individuals and cultures we are becoming more intent on reinforcing our perspectives and attitudes to life, or whether we will access a broader range of information that challenges us to re-think them. Are we using the tools of the internet and technology as a means to broaden our communication and ability to learn about the world and other cultures and perspectives, or is it just a means to maintain our little status quo?
One way that the internet may assist is in the sometimes random way that search engines (often due to broadly worded queries), cause us to stumble on information that is outside our comfort zone. Providing this is not because we’ve been delivered a porno site or similar, then the find may be useful in helping to broaden our personal horizon.
Intrigued we may have the opportunity to take in information that hasn’t been sanitised and prepared for our consumption, or that fits with our normal world view.
Access to flat information may help us to broaden our ideas about who else is in the world, what they’re doing, and why they’re doing it.
I think we need to remember that both flat and vertical information is tinged with the perspective of the mind that wrote/shot/spoke it. This means we’re all being influenced all the time by each other’s thoughts about life and events.
Whether it’s been reported by a qualified journalist, a citizen journalist or a blogger, all information that we access is a secondary source unless it’s our own first-hand experience, and so it’s only one person’s perspective.
The benefit of flat information, in my view, is that the information is easier to de-construct, than that served up by reporters paid by media organisations.
The audience has only to sift through the veil of one perspective, than the many veils of corporations with a particular culture-shaping agenda.
The disadvantage of flat information is that this one veil can be more elusive than the conglomerate. It’s often difficult to know who wrote, shot, or said it – what’s their frame of reference, their bias?
An audience can choose to shun vertical information delivered by experts or qualified journalists, for the freedom of surfing the plethora of flat information available via the internet. But with freedom comes responsibility.
In this new dynamic, fluidic world of the internet, the media’s purpose in reflecting a society or culture back to itself is unclear. Who is doing the reflecting? We all are. We’re all becoming the media, the medium and the message.
There’s a world-wide interaction going on and if we wish to claim the right to report and air our views in the flat news environment, then, in my view, it’s up to each of us to hone our skills in communication, and to broaden our knowledge of what’s happening. Then we can analyse and contribute in a consciously and critically intelligent way to this great and exciting global conversation.
Each of us, as audience, will value this interaction on an item-by-item basis, rewarding and reinforcing the contributor accordingly asking ourselves, how did this add to my sense of what’s going on in our world, and how can I more effectively relate with it?
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I like the first two items on your frontpage: the one on journalism, it will be interesting to see what response you may receive, the other one on wiki leaks, I wonder if you’ll get a comment from the Pentagon, pretty courageous to come out in support of a guy who is making himself an enemy of the US militairy. Good on ya.