I’m at a gathering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, today. About 40 of us — from academia, the media, the tech world, students — are talking about the future of media, Internet television, and the statewide UCTV (University of California Television) system. UCTV and the Carsey-Wolf Center for Film, Television and New Media and putting on a daylong program called "The Future of Multi-Media Digital News and Cultural Networks."
Lots of familiar faces here: Dave Toole, Dan Gillmor, Doc Searls,
Markus Sandy, Jennifer Earl, Jerry Roberts, Ron Rice and others.
Sat down a few moments ago with Dan Greenstein to see how UCTV and Ourmedia might work together. During the public discussion afterward, I broached the question of whether open access on UCTV meant that people can use the media rather than just watch it, which kicked off an interesting exchange during which Doc Searls and Dan Gillmor seconded my suggestion that UCTV begin introducing Creative Commons as an option for its content creators.
Saw a presentation from an editor of TheRealNews.com, a great independent, alternative news network that’s just about to launch.
I just finished a talk, with Dave Toole, about the future of television, focusing on IPTV and grassroots media. Showed a mash-up of Tony Blair, showed off the recently relaunched Ourmedia (I’ve been waiting until we launch channels before announcing it here), and suggested that the educational community would benefit by tapping into and contributing to our Personal Media Learning Center and Open Media Directory.
Forrest Sawyer
But the most interesting talk of the day was by Forrest Sawyer, the longtime ABC News correspondent (and occasional Nightline host), who is now with left NBC News to become an independent strategist and speaker. Sawyer gave the most startling, incisive indictment of traditional media’s attitudes toward emerging media that I’ve ever heard. Some highlights:
"The truth is I could learn more about what’s happening in Iraq by going to the internet rather than by being on the ground," because there are Iraqi bloggers, U.S. soldiers skirting the Pentagon’s censorship, and other sources of information, said Sawyer, who’s reported from Iraq 18 times or so.
"The Internet has a search, sort and array problem — it’s a nightmare finding the stuff you want to have. [The traditional media] have a business model based on scarcity, and information is no longer scarce. Old media must productize whatever they have. In entertainment, that makes snese. But information, once freed, is loose, it’s liberated, it’s churned, passed around, and you no longer have control over it."
The television news departments, as a whole, "are moving toward trivializing the news. Diane Sawyer giving you cooking lessons, or the shriek fests you see at night. In the process, information has gotten lost. News organizations have lost their credibility. … There’s a disconnect between what’s happening in DC and what’s happening in the rest of the country." He pointed to the appearance by Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert at the National Press Club, where establishment reporters thought the talk was a flop but Colbert’s talk caught fire on YouTube and nationwide. "They live in a bubble, and that bubble is now being shattered."
Even the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has gotten his comeuppance, for his predictions over the past four years that developments in Iraq would be borne out within six months. "On the Internet, a six-month time period is now known as a Friedman unit."
Sawyer said of "citizen journalism and crowdsourcing — it’s a fascinating process taking place."
During the recent trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the most authoritative source of information was not the New York Times or the Washington Post but a new blog called Firedog Lake, which offered live blogging, analysis and a deep set of links and background.
"We’re just acting like the old media are more powerful than the new media, but they’re not."
After his talk, Sawyer was asked a question that often comes up in my talks as well. "How can you trust what you find online?"
Replied Sawyer: "Let me give you two words: Judy Miller." Truth telling and falsehoods take place both on the Web and in traditional media. Sawyer’s last words: "I watch Fox News because i want to know what’s happening in Bizarro World." He’ll be giving a keynote tonight at the university.
Dan Gillmor
From Dan’s talk:
"Universities will be the long tail of R&D (research and development)."
"Nonprofits are going to be huge in the future of journalism."
"For years, I’ve been begging newspapers to do a pothole mashup" with Google Maps, and finally the Bakersfield Californian (I believe) just did one.
Dan is a fan of the virtual world Second Life, but added: "We desperately need an open source competitor to Second Life. I don’t like Second Life owning this space."
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.
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