The Feedback System

In chapter 12 of his book We the Media, Dan Gillmor writes:

Blogs and other modern media are feedback systems. They work in something close
to real time and capture -- in the best sense of the word -- the multitude
of ideas and realities each of us can offer. On the Internet, we are defined
by what we know and share. Now, for the first time in history, the feedback
system can be global and nearly instantaneous.

This feedback system is a big reason I got involved in the online world in the first place. I am wondering where it ranks for other people as a reason for them to be pulled into the Internet.

'Emergent Democracy'

Joi Ito is one of the primary thinkers and innovators when it comes to the crossroads where technology meets democracy.

Ito wrote an essay called "Emergent Democracy," which started as a wiki. In the essay, Ito writes:

The monolithic media and its increasingly simplistic representation of the world
cannot provide the competition of ideas necessary to reach consensus.

Here is the whole essay.

Dan Gillmor on Storytelling

In the introduction to his book We the Media, longtime journalist Dan Gillmor writes:

This book is about the transformation from a twentieth century mass-media structure to something profoundly more grassroots and democratic. It's a story, first, of evolutionary change. Humans have always told each other stories, and each new era of progress has led to an expansion of storytelling.

This is also the story of modern revolution, however, because technology has given us a communications toolkit that allows anyone [to] become a journalist at little cost and, in theory, with global reach. Nothing like this has ever been remotely possible before.

So I ask: What is happening as this evolution meets this revolution? Is the world changing because of it? Is journalism changing because of it? And if there is change happening, is all of it change for the good?

A True Insider

A patient in a Russian hospital heard muffled cries of young children. When she saw gagged babies, she pulled out her cell phone and took some video and stills. This is yet another example of the everyday person becoming a documentarian, a journalist, a whistleblower. It is another example of uncovering news and distributing it worldwide almost instantaneously.

An Obscure Mass. Law

Wow, I've lived in Massachusetts for 10 years, and I never even knew about this law.

The comments on Reddit.com for this piece are priceless.

Convergence Journalism at Its Finest

This story, "‘Man Down’: When One Bullet Alters Everything," by Damien Cave for the New York Times is poignant and rich in detail. The accompanying photos add some stirring visuals. And the associated video, narrated by Cave, gives even more details.

The whole package is a compelling example of convergence journalism. And it has drawn the ire of a soldier's family and the US Military and threatened the embedded status of the journalists responsible for the piece. Here is the AP story talking about aftermath of the story.

Just Because It's on a Web Site...

Mary Ann Akers, who writes a behind-the-scenes political blog for the Washington Post Web site, tackles the icy tension between Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Fox News.

The highlight of her post, however, is the quote from an internal memo that John Moody, the VP for news at Fox, sent to staff in the wake of Fox's controversial and incorrect news reports that Obama was educated at a Muslim madrassah in Indonesia.

Moody writes:

For the record: seeing an item on a website does not mean it is right. Nor does
it mean it is ready for air on FNC. The urgent queue is our way of communicating
information that is air-worthy. Please adhere to this.