Denis Hancock previously posted about “The death of the newspaper: murder or suicide?” and referenced an interesting article in the Washington Post by David Simon (the creator of the HBO series The Wire). In the past week there have been a number of events that have reminded me just how much things are changing.
This clip below from the The Simpsons provides a humorous view of what I think most people are already noticing. Nelson makes fun of a panelist at a political debate because he is a “print journalist from the Washington Post” and goes on to point out “HAHA, your medium is dying”.
This reminded me of when I was at the gym last week watching some CNN political panel and thinking “this is probably the first election that bloggers have been brought in to sit beside experts form political think tanks and media outlets”. I am still not sure what to make of this change just yet. On one hand it adds a fresh perspective to the media and political scenes which was desperately needed. The concern (which I have heard a number of times) is that blogs promote rapid reporting of current topics and we may lose some of the in-depth investigative reports that are the hallmark of established media outlets. Hopefully we end up with a model that brings the best of both worlds, but only time will tell.
[...] Found via the Wikinomics blog. [...]
[...] popular topic on the Wikinomics blog (see here, here, here and here), “the newspaper” has come under a lot of scrutiny (read: criticism) for [...]
[...] news reveals the rapid decline of the American newspaper. Some even claim that the American newspaper is dead. Many people put forth many reasons why, but I believe the [...]
India-born entrepreneurs empower US voters
Shukoor Ahmed ran for a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1998, after coming to America a decade earlier from Hyderabad, India. Campaigning door-to-door, he was surprised so many voters did not know who represented them!
After his race ended slightly short of victory, he took advantage of his Master’s degree in Computer Technology and Political Science to build StateDemocracy.org, a website he launched in 2001 to connect citizens and lawmakers. His website’s motto encapsulated its mission: