NYU communications scholar Clay Shirky, in an essay for the Wall Street Journal, notes that every new form of communication has brought on predictions of a societal dumbing-down. The Internet is no different.
Yes, he says, there is much mediocrity because most publicly available media now is produced by those with little or no understanding of professional standards of journalism, writing or filmmaking. But there are also so much great content in the pipeline because of the arrival of the Internet; on balance, there is no doubt about its advancement of society.
"This issue isn't whether there's lots of dumb stuff online—there is, just as there is lots of dumb stuff in bookstores. The issue is whether there are any ideas so good today that they will survive into the future," he writes. Open-source software seems to be such an idea, he suggests.
"There is no easy way to get through a media revolution of this magnitude; the task before us now is to experiment with new ways of using a medium that is social, ubiquitous and cheap, a medium that changes the landscape by distributing freedom of the press and freedom of assembly as widely as freedom of speech."
Yes, he says, there is much mediocrity because most publicly available media now is produced by those with little or no understanding of professional standards of journalism, writing or filmmaking. But there are also so much great content in the pipeline because of the arrival of the Internet; on balance, there is no doubt about its advancement of society.
"This issue isn't whether there's lots of dumb stuff online—there is, just as there is lots of dumb stuff in bookstores. The issue is whether there are any ideas so good today that they will survive into the future," he writes. Open-source software seems to be such an idea, he suggests.
"There is no easy way to get through a media revolution of this magnitude; the task before us now is to experiment with new ways of using a medium that is social, ubiquitous and cheap, a medium that changes the landscape by distributing freedom of the press and freedom of assembly as widely as freedom of speech."
