July 5, 2007

This looks like a good and important book.

I’ve often been struck by thoughts about (which I am unable to put into clear words) how the commercial and organizational environments in which we live aim to force us into ways of thinking about things so as to enhance conformity.

Via the Editors Weblog …

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The information age: George Orwell’s worst fear

Paul Moreira is an investigative reporter who has worked extensively in the print press and was one of the founders of the defunct French, investigative, television show “90 minutes.”

In his latest book, Les nouvelles censures, Moreira describes the widespread practices of overt and covert manipulations of the news media.

“One of this era’s most powerful myths is that we live in the information age. In fact, we live in a media age, in which information is repetitive, “safe” and limited by invisible borders,” writes John Pilger, Hidden Agendas.

Are these theories ‘Big Brother’ paranoia, or are information flows much more controlled than the public would like to think? Is this only the case for television’s spectacular requirements, or also for trusted newspapers?

Moreira investigates, and answers.

[ Snip ... ]

Essentially, the story of ‘disinformation versus truth’ is an age-old cleavage. This is not a new, tech-driven, Big Brother phenomenon. New censorships have emerged, as well as new channels for information delivery, but the dialectic remains.

So with this new set of tools and paradigms, are we heading toward an obscure Orwellian age, or toward a crystal clear world? Will blogs, Web 2.0, and citizen journalism see through the hazy filters, or will they just cause more confusion and inaccuracy? “It will always stay a dialectic struggle,” answers Moreira, prudently enough.

Granted, there will always be people seeking to inform and spread newsworthy information, just as there will always be people with interests to defend, who seek to control the impact of information. The only difference now is the institutionalization of a filtering system, accompanied by a switch from raw censorship to ‘suave communication.’ With this in mind, newspapers and news media must emphasize, financially and ethically, the need for accuracy, journalist integrity, and investigative reporting, to see past the filters’ fast-food recipes – full of taste and devoid of nutrition.

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Via The Editors Weblog, via the Guardian Unlimited

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India: Readers become writers for popular weekly supplement

During the Asian citizen journalism conference in Kuala Lumpur, The Guardian’s Kevin Anderson talked to Deendayal Vaidya about his work on an extremely popular supplement that featured only reader-submitted content.

Vaidya works for The Sakaal Group in Pune, India and since last year, has helped develop the reader-based supplement. Initially, the staff advertised the supplement in the print media and solicited reader submissions. Readers were asked to send in responses to 15 or so questions, such as “Who are you proud of?” or “How have you overcome difficulty in your life?” Nearly a thousand readers, the majority of whom were never published before, have since written for the supplement.

According to Vaidya, the supplement still features 100% reader-submitted content and has been a huge success; he reports that he sees people reading the supplement more often than the main newspaper.

Because readers eagerly responded to requests for their stories, Vaidya believes that they think of it as their supplement, something to which they have directly contributed. Through the weekly feature, the newspaper has built a stronger connection with its readers, who are been more than willing to not only consume, but also participate in the news.

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.David Weinberger’s suggestion for appropriate legislative action regarding net neutrality is here