2/21/2005 12:30:00 PM|||Toni|||Varifrank

Varifrank has an interesting write up on change with a particular focus on Media. It's a very clever Marshall McLuhan type piece. How today we have the 'Old Media' kicking and screaming while resisting change. The emergence of blogs have forced these changes today, but don't hang on too tight to the 'New Media' since that too will change. It's the world in which we live. While many changes can be good, not all have to be.

Excerpt:
People of her generation began to talk of their role of “Speaking Truth to Power”, exposing corruption and “making to world a better place”. It became intoxicating. She could become famous she told herself, just by writing a few little stories.

She could become an “authority”. She could change government policy, all because you could get hired by a newspaper to write stories. There was no competition; she had the consumer and the publisher right where she wanted them.

She used to march in protests in college, she wanted to change the world, now through the new found world of “Activist Journalism”, she could.

Now she mattered. Now she were important. The world listened to her. They watched her breathlessly help make policy on Sunday morning Political Shows, where the “old men” asked her to appear to give your opinion. She was “speaking truth to power”.

I remember Gwen Ifill from PBS (she was the journo who moderated one of the 2004 debates), someone asked her why she had chosen journalism for her profession. Her response was "to make a difference in the world". This tells all bout many in journalism today. I thought journalism was about 'reporting' the news, not manipulating, creating or making a difference in the world. Hmmm.|||110900827893581437|||The Face of Change