Old vs New Media

Tuesday 20 October 2009


I was having a browse through The Guardian news website today, and came across an interesting article about new media and the power of online social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. In the article, media commentator Emily Bell, highlights the growing trend of news reaching people via web 2.0 sites before they hear about it through traditional platforms and the two versions of access becoming rivals rather than working together.

Bell notes in her piece, the two most recent stories where this has been the case; the Trafigura incident in which The Guardian received an injunction to prevent them from reporting anything about their plans to dump waste oil over the Ivory Coast, and all the Twitterers (or Twits?) under the sun getting hold of it and spreading it like a fine home made jam, all over the hot crumpety-like Internet. (You can tell I haven't had lunch yet.)

Then there was Moir-gate, in which Jan Moir of the Daily Mail made homophobic comments about Stephen Gately, and caused universal outrage on the net at her insensitive comments published shortly after his death. This caused many Internet users to barge their way onto the Mail's website and give them a piece of their mind, some people actually vomited onto their computer screens out of sheer indignation.

I think the statement that old media will be entirely replaced by its shiny, friendly, accessible contemporary is a rash one, but one that may have a fair few ounces of truth. The general public have grasped an extremely useful tool, and are using it as only human beings know how, to cause trouble. I for one, am more likely to learn of breaking news from my peers' Facebook statuses rather than by catching it on the wireless, and I don't know about you, but I sometimes prefer the brutal honesty that my friends tend to use to blurt out their tit bit of information. I heard about Micheal Jackson's death first on Facebook, and Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, and as soon as I knew, I told everyone I could, and assume that the ball just kept on rolling.

3 comments:

Sam Lee 20 October 2009 at 17:35  

Crikey, you've been blogging like a machine for the last couple of days. Like a blog machine. I enjoyed this one as well, although I think all your blogs would benefit from an increase in crumpet-based imagery.

Soon newspapers will be reduced to merely being books of adverts, and then will become a thing of the past altogether, and the people of the UK will have to look elsewhere for their daily sudoku. These are traumatic times indeed.
x

Heather Lee 20 October 2009 at 22:33  

Thank you for reading Sam Lee.

I have to blog like a machine for my course, two per week man! If you have any bloggy ideas, chuck 'em my way.

Ms Savvy.

-miriam 1 November 2009 at 14:48  

"some people actually vomited onto their computer screens out of sheer indignation."

heh heh heh.

i just realised why i never notice your new blogs. i wasn't even following you. and i can myself a blogger. shocker.

i also enjoyed the cartoon. :)

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