Changing screens

Democratization of both content production and distribution that was brought about by the social web can be even more powerful when it helps to fill in the gaps where traditional media doesn’t go — either because it doesn’t want to, or because it can’t. {One big benefit of the social web: Journalism emerges wherever it is needed}

In many countries political structures tend to reward loyalty and blind support and not competence. Several news station dependent on their advertisement income do not want to step on somebodies toes. The government stations being bounded on the political positioning of the members of parliament, are mostly connected and dependant on politicians who rule the country. So, they shall be careful not to say to much against their boss.

The economist Vince Musewe does mind our society should be made up of community development forums that are ward-based – made up of local residents who have the competence to implement the agenda that are agreed upon by the community. for him it is clear that we do have to remove the conflict of interest that currently exists between party politics and the people.

He writes:

We cannot afford to have a culture of entitlement as we have now, where individuals remain in leadership for other reasons and not because they are competent in performing their duty to serve the country. The social cost of this is just too high.

If we agree that the people come first, then the social management structures we require must be true to this. Political campaigning is full of lies and innuendo designed to achieve the short term objective of political power. How can we rely on such a process to elect those who will deliver? Corruption, greed, political appointments and favoritism characterise our politics and yet every five years we return to this very process that is not working. Something has to change.

Those who love their neighbour should be concerned about the way their lives can develop. Looking at what happens we should see where it is going to and how it all can affect our environment. Not reacting or taking a “laisser faire” attitude is not helping any body and is crating opportunities that wrongdoing can grow. Every person in a community has his responsibility to take for that community.

It would be too easy to wait for politicians, we do not want to vote for or do not want to vote against, to bring out the best for the whole community and not only for their own party or going for popular gain.

Our communities can only be made strong if we all get involved to rebuild them. Politicians will not do that and where they have tried to do so, we have seen communities being divided and others favoured based on their blind support for the party.

says Vince Musewe about Zimbabwe, but it counts for every country.

The editor of the Zimbawean who finds there is need to cast the net wide in the fight against corruption, which has not only eaten into the social fabric, but has had far-reaching economic consequences, gives the word to Tich who writes:

More often than not, when queried about critical issues, the officials are either evasive, arrogant or they send the journalist from pillar to post, until s/he gives up as nothing materialises. I have also realised, most hide behind the finger by asking for questions in writing via email, after which they sit on them, hence, more often than not, we get, “…had not responded to questions by the time of going to print”.

Sweeping critical issues under the carpet simply further reinforces the scourge of corruption that has paralysed our nation and dampened public trust in national institutions.

Human attitudes and aptitudes determine and underpin the efficiency of bureaucracy. The citizens do use their mobile-phones to send out messages which can be send forwards to many others. Many people started reporting what they saw around them and enjoyed posting things they caught with their little camera. what was captured on the little screen found its way to the big world, being perceived and reproduced accurately. As such it could cross borders and lines of fire, and got others to see what really happened. “Street” journalism or “user-generated content”, became a reality which politicians could not ignore any more. More citizens were willing to engage themselves for the cause they believed in.

Illustration of Facebook mobile interface (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Helped by the internet, microblogs such as Twitter or Facebook, many made us of that modern technology to spread their ideas and comments. By those innovative means anyone is allowed to transmit information worldwide, aided by software and website features that incorporate direct multimedia upload links. This made that small-scale issues and reports got the potential to go global.

Members of the public documenting on camera phones and other devices, recording the unfolding events in places that are less accessible to the media makes that those things certain would have preferred to be  left unseen, could see the light. Though we also must be careful for such news gathering and be aware that also with such postings or video images can be muddled.

Shelby Stapleton correctly points to the fact that:

In spite of the individualism that accompanies the work of a citizen reporter, it’s possible that their lack of resources to obtain reliable information could discredit them. Whilst they are able to communicate freely, there is little to prevent them from presenting distorted versions of the truth to others, causing offence, or making the wrong judgements regarding the matters they explore if they do not follow policies or guidelines.

Pippa Sheehan, Freelance journalist, and professional model based in Brisbane, Australia, thinks the beauty of the online world is, that a large portion of what is posted online is made available on a long-term basis, and sometimes permanently. But the very quickly changing world of service providers and computers “going to the shredder” proves that lots of interesting material can disappear for ever quickly. How many persons did not loose their file content when their hard-disks failed? How many web accounts do not change and do not bring their content over to the new web-address or have it lost in the technical mango-dango.

It is true that the beauty of the internet lies in the fact that images, information and videos can be posted and shared online to reach a far wider audience than previously possible. The internet brought the world at our fingertips. An incredible amount of people can reach information from places where they would never be able to come. Lots of libraries are now reachable by those interested to dig deep into the world of that what is written in the past times. those living in industrialised countries nearly do not have an excuse any more that they could not find enough information, because even when they themselves do not have a computer they will be able to find a public library nearby offering the use of internet connected computers.

Clay Shirky

Member of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Advisory Board American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies, practices what he preaches, by trying to create enough platforms where people can get free entrance to informative and educational material. In his book Here Comes Everybody (Penguin Press in 2008), Shirky explains how he has long spoken in favor of crowdsourcing and collaborative efforts online. Accordingly to the autor, the book is about

“what happens when people are given the tools to do things together, without needing traditional organizational structures”.

Image via CrunchBase

In the book, Shirky recounts how social tools such as blogging software like WordPress and Twitter, file sharing platforms like Flickr, and online collaboration platforms like Wikipedia support group conversation and group action in a way that previously could only be achieved through institutions. In the same way the printing press increased individual expression, and the telephone increased communications between individuals, Shirky argues that with the advent of online social tools, groups can form without the previous restrictions of time and cost. Shirky observes that:

“[Every] institution lives in a kind of contradiction: it exists to take advantage of group effort, but some of its resources are drained away by directing that effort. Call this the institutional dilemma–because an institution expends resources to manage resources, there is a gap between what those institutions are capable of in theory and in practice, and the larger the institution, the greater those costs.” {Here Comes Everybody, Shirky, p.21}

The book suggests that the Web is not competition for traditional media, but a completely different system that empowers both groups and individuals, a place where choice is not only an option, but an imperative. {NY Times review by David Carr, published: March 31, 2008}

In Belgium several people are already spending more time at the computer screen (be it a tower personal computers, portable pc’s, laptops, MacBooks or notebooks, or i-pads} than behind the television screen. Most people rely on the news brought to them on the doorstep by the internet, instead of the television news broadcasting. Consumers also increasingly live in “the cloud,” a wireless universe of always-on content, they use to make their content available ‘for ever’ to their relatives.

That “for ever” though can be very limited in time. Many forget that the “drop box” (cloud; My box; Drop Box; Ubuntu One a.o.) shall fail to recover the files when the main connection gave its spirit.

The amount of photography, recorded material, text, the cloud of metadata that we are all leaving behind, be it on our own blogs, social media and backup hard disk is overwhelming, and sometimes I get the impression it would become like the Gestapo their archives, such an amount of information it would take more than a lifetime to read it all.

A big problem is also that quantity has come into the liking more than quality.

Pippa Sheehan writes:

The habitual changes in society need to be mirrored by different platforms, and altered for the more savvy consumer. As I’ve said before – it’s one thing to write a story, but an entirely different thing to write a good story.

Those good stories may still find their way to the paperback and have the real printed material on the lap of the ones with the appetite for reading. The bookish shall find material which will stay alive longer than the electronic print.

Living in this age of “Getting online or getting left behind” we should consider what we want to leave behind for every one to be seen. We also should wonder how we by sharing thoughts can contribute to our world which can become bigger than the little cocoon where we are staying in our own region.

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Please do find to read:

1. The people must come first
2. We demand answers
3. Citizen Journalism: A New Age?
4. We Want It, and Waiting Is No Option
5. Get online or get left behind

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