Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, from pulse2.com
Ok, I’m officially changing course. I had an idea. The concept was this: a one-stop aggregation site that makes news fun to participate in. Some sort of all-in-one, self-curated and personalized algorithm that pulls news-related content based on topics you like, allowing the user to respond to content via medium of choice.
Then, through doing some research I realized that news already is fun – and much more so than it’s ever been.
We have incredible news organizations like Frontline, CNN and NPR innovating the new media landscape; talented hosts like Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow to guide us along the way; and technology services like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ to facilitate sharing and discussion. President Obama publishes updates directly to social networks while a growing band of citizens are involved in compiling, discussing, and sharing classified documents and leading watchdog groups.
The big lesson I learned is that there’s no need to put everything in one place to make it great. And part of the fun is within the discovery process. It’s through finding content and sharing it across a variety of mediums that encourages us to connect with those in our online communities who likely do the same.
From this great piece in The Economist:
“The internet is making news more participatory, social, diverse, and partisan, reviving the discursive ethos of the era before mass media.”
It’s also said by the author that news isn’t becoming decentralized at all. In fact, it’s actually bringing us “back to the coffee house.”
My argument remains the same – news has become far too decentralized to compare it to any sort of public forum. We have room for discourse, but this is largely due to the fact that we have access to more content than ever. We can express ourselves online freely and easily – but who are we really talking to? There’s room for everyone in the coffee house and plenty of espresso, but everyone’s far from standing still.