How I learned to stop depending on the traditional media and loved Twitter instead

Recently, the owner of the traditional media (Rupert Murdoch, the media tycoon--lord and master of all the media that we can think of--newspapers, radio, TV) has threatened Google (and by default, the users of Google, people like myself) with the disappearance of his owned news information from the search engine's results. The media mogul demands payment for his media "service."

No small threat indeed, the Internet users of Google would not find news information as readily as it can be searched and found today. However, I don't think that it will be such a devastating event if it were to really happen. If news media information, as it is known today, were to disappear we would have to turn to the web and to Twitter to find out about the news and events of the day. We would have to ask each other on Twitter to figure out what's going on in the world and locally. It would take a few minutes to figure out and find out about any significant event in the world or nearby. So, I do not think the non-availability of the traditional news media wil produce an significant impact for the average user of the web. It would represent and inconvenient truth, but the inhabitants of Twitterland would creatively and definitively find the solution.

The traditional news media is not required for events and activities to happen, and it is not indispensable for the Internet/web user to keep informed, mainly because:

- In the past, the news media machinery has in most part reflected the views and information that broadcasts the views of the status quo

- In the past, also, the media has reflected the point of view and the perspective of the people in power

- Nor has the media excercised independent thinking and critical questioning of events, or people

- If there is anything of significance that will help the average web user, it is not usually reported by the traditional media

- The information that people (the middle and lower class) need to know is hidden and needs translation: the stock market, medicine/health/pharmaceutical, legal, political, and even when reported by the traditional media, it remains an enigma and meaninless

The main difference is that now, if we were to be left without the traditional media, Twitter is available and it can (on its own power--it will save us because it has its foundation rooted in the power of the user) match any media tycoon word for dollar.

 

Posted via web from norwind's (beyond) posterous