‘We the Media’ Q&A in Wired news

Wired News’ Xeni Jardin had a bunch of questions for me about the book, and I did my best to respond. You can find the Q&A here.

Comments


Posted by: Seth Finkelstein on August 11, 2004 07:54 AM

I found this quote particularly amusing:

“You could almost see the establishment journalists petting bloggers like poodles and cooing, “Oh, good bloggers, aren’t you cute!” (Apart from the ones who put on body armor and said, “Omigod, these pit bulls are dangerous!”)”

Great minds think alike 🙂

Blogging, Democratic Convention, and Reaction
http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/archives/000669.html
“When people speak of “bloggers as the new pamphleteers” or some such, that almost always has a patronizing undertone to me. I hear an unvoiced aspect of “Aren’t they C-U-T-E!”. Like what you would say to a child doing finger-painting. “That’s such a gorgeous picture, err, blog-post. Maybe someday you’ll be a famous artist, err, pundit”.


Posted by: on August 11, 2004 08:40 AM

I measure in many ways the impact of things by the ecomomic value. Dan’s book is wonderful but his impact is measured by those willing to exchange something (ie money) for it. People use their ecomomic power to vote for goods and services. So the day a blogger is a millionaire made from blogging (subscriptions to his/her blog because people will pay for the great enlightning information etc) is the day I see a successful blogger.

Everyone should buy Dan’s book if they are interested in this because it is insightful, but measuring the idea’s impact on society is different. I only look to Dan Brown’s (Da Vinci Code) or JK Rowling’s (Harry Potter), pocket books because that to me determines whos ideas and comentary carry weight. The more economic value (money/property) people are willing to part with to engage in the discussion the more powerful the material. Very much like Dan’s mention of patronage. Rich people willing to comission ideas and art by spending money.


Posted by: on August 12, 2004 12:34 AM

One thing jumped out at me from this article and that was the unchallenged assertion that the internet is used to spread lies – of course it is and the lie is half way around the world before the truth has had time to pull on it’s pant’s, as they say, but I’ve often been impressed by how quickly lies can be quashed and how hard it must be in the Foolish Bungling Idiot’s ( FBI) trying to spread CoinTelPro in this day and age.
I’d like to see a longer article and in Salon or at Slate not Wired.

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