The
New America
Foundation hosted Eric
Schmidt and Jared
Cohen to speak about the New
Digital Age, sharing their views about the growing effect of the
internet on individuals, nations, and the global community. One
interesting topic was a forward look at where we will get news in the
future.
When
I was growing up, most of my friends' parents read two newspapers
each day to get the news – this was before television; radio
spotlighted Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, but mostly was
5-minutes of highlights on the hour.
Television
entered the scene as 'moving picture newspapers', evolving to at
least two broadcasts per evening – dinnertime and bedtime - with
the news anchor reporting facts and offering a commentary view of the
story. After a while, families dropped one newspaper, relying more on
the broadcasts from ABC, CBS, NBC, and some local newscasts.
Cable
added explosive growth in news programming with an emphasis on being
'first on the street' and digesting the story into soundbites. Quick
and easy access to the distilled news was readily available all the
time – an enticing alternative to spending time reading and
watching the news.
Blogs
have expanded the field even more – individuals share news,
comments, and opinions on a wide variety of topics of current
importance and have replaced paper and television sources for the
connected community.
Recent
events demonstrate the significance of individuals in the news
process - phone camera images, Twitter, YouTube, and other social
media updates are scooping other sources in 'getting to air' first.
Schmidt
and Cohen prognosticated the changes will continue to morph, with
individuals (amateur and professional) as the source of the
'on-the-scenes' instant coverage and the traditional news
organizations offering verification and fact-checking of initial
reporting.
Like
deja vu, readers are again seeking multiple sources and drawing their
own conclusions about what information to retain and discard.
Traditional news sources are simply data points instead of the
definitive source of news.
As
in education, the developing skill is effective filtering of a
growing volume of inputs; the result is knowledge and a goal is it's
practical application (let's make something useful).
How
to become wise in 5 minute increments –Rainmakers.
2 comments:
I've got so many facts, myths, and politically correct errata coming at me, I have to shut down the stimuli to figure out what is valuable.
There is something about information needs to solve the problem at hand. If you can't tell true from wished, you lose.
Plenty of noise out there, and data which is almost infinite.
The new skills are filtering and applying the right information.
Thanks for the comment.
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