The impact of the internet on news has the potential to transform the interaction between politics, media and the public, beyond recognition, argues the BBC's Director of Global News, Richard Sambrook.
The argument is
The information revolution is in its earliest stages. But it has the potential to alter the dynamics of public debate, and the interaction between politics, media and the public, beyond recognition
Further
Just as the printing press and later the end of licensing produced a seismic shift in public debate 300 years ago, the internet is having a similar impact now. Information, knowledge and public access are being redistributed, with consequences we have only just begun to feel.
Tabloid newspapers are popular the world over. The news business has been based on a model of limited information gathered by select organisations with the resources to do so, and then distributed in ways controlled by the media or the regulators.That world has gone. We now have unlimited information available - it has been commoditised and democratised. Thanks to the internet, the role of media gatekeeper has gone.
Information has broken free and top-down control is slipping inexorably away.
And as we say, once you have stormed the Bastille, you don't go back to your day job. In this instance, that is the passive uniformed consumer, reader viewer, who today expects and no less demands their voice to be heard.
News organisations do not own the news any more. They can validate information, analyse it, explain it, and they can help the public find what they need to know.But they no longer control or decide what the public know. It is a major restructuring of the relationship between public and media. But it will affect politics and policy as well.
People can now address politicians directly, and politicians can reach the public without going through the media any more. Public discourse is becoming unmediated.
As a consequence the roles of all professionals are changing and if journalists are becoming people who help manage information, perhaps NHS Direct is an example of health professionals becoming people who help individual manage their own health.
The availability of information and the pressure for transparency is raising new political issues which we have not had to confront before.
Today, the truth will out at greater speed, with greater impact.
The Community Generation
Generation 'C' shun traditional organisations in favour of unmediated relationship to the things they care about. The new individuals thus demand a high quality of direct participation and influence. They have skills to lead, confer and discuss, and they are not content to be good foot soldiers.
Without switching lense on my 550D I couldn’t get any closer than this so the 100% crop below isn’t really accurate but it shows what kind of sharpness the white iPhone 4 is capable of. Impressive
Posted by: Henry Peise | December 24, 2010 at 07:20 AM