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The past two weeks have seen a number of important to not so important events occur. I've been thinking about how some of these events have shown how we get our news is slowly moving away from the main stream media (MSM) domination. New media is getting the scoop on the MSM. In some cases, the MSM has to rely solely on information from the new media. I've chosen the events below to try and make some sense of what is happening to how we get our news.
The most obvious example is the Iranian election. This story was made by the new media. It is not the first such occurrence, but it is one of the most important and probably the largest. Coverage for at least the first 48 or so hours seemed to be only on the Internet. Andrew Sullivan and The Huffington Post both had excellent coverage, as did the New York Times' news blog, The Lede.
All did a very effective job at summing up all the information coming out of Iran, which was mostly conveyed over social networks with Twitter leading the way. Not many people have the time and patience to sort through all the tweets from various Iranians. This is even more true when the Iranian government took the dissemination of misinformation to a new level and made their own Twitter accounts. A regular person will not sit there and try to figure out which information is true and which is planted. This is where the blogs stepped in. The blogs effectively did the jobs that CNN or MSNBC or Fox were supposed to be doing. They took the raw news data and made sense of it for the masses.
The masses also had access to the raw news data, if they were wanted it. This is what I think was one of the most interesting aspects to come out of the events. I wasn't on Twitter when the attacks on India occurred last year, so this was my first time experiencing something like this. It was gripping, to say the least, to see a wave of new tweets come in. I knew that I was among the first people to hear about certain developments and I knew that some tweets were almost real time. Twitter provides a level of connection across the world that is unprecedented. It also allows for each person to form an opinion on current events, instead of being told what to think. Extremely important leap forward.
Another interesting aspect is the cyber warfare that was going on. The Iranian government soon found out about the information getting out of the country and did what every good authoritarian regime does and attempted to shut down communication. Phone lines, cell phones, and the Internet all had limited access. When people outside of Iran provided the people of Iran proxies so they still had Internet access, they would shut down the proxies. Of course, more and more proxies popped up. When the government started to shut down Iranian reformist websites, pleas went out over Twitter to attack the government electronically. DoS attacks were launched on a variety of government and pro-government sites.
So Twitter gives us raw data, it keeps people connected to organize and it allows for people across the globe to participate in historic events. This is absolutely incredible. What if Twitter was around for the 2000/2004 stolen elections? Or the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago? Or Tiananmen Square? Countless examples.
Meanwhile, blogs and online news sites with little, if any, traditional resources outdid cable news and newspapers. Newspapers are dying, their staff and resources have been cut, so it's of little surprise that they were outdone. But cable news, with all their profit and fancy graphics and huge amounts of resources, ultimately failed.
This is why the continuing ascension of new media is imperative. With the steady demise of newspapers, there needs to be another form of news dissemination. Otherwise, even more people will get their news from local and cable news.
The problem with that, of course, is that cable news sucks. This was done to death, so I've just picked out a few examples to show what was happening on these stations.
During the weekend, when the #cnnfail hashtag was at its height:
CNN was showing a repeat of Larry King’s interview of the stars of the “American Chopper” show.
On the morning of Monday June 15th:
"...I turned on cable news this morning, and saw endless ads for a Larry King Jonas Brothers "interview," Morning Joe yuking it up discussing Kuwaiti massage therapists, a video of a tomato throwing contest on CNN...
Middle of the day on the 15th while there are huge protests and crackdowns, about CNN:
...you hear a simple statement from the anchor that Mousavi lost the election and telling us to wait for the official results in 10 day's time...
Infinite examples are out there, no need for me to put any more. Basically, massive news fail. Eventually the networks grudgingly started some half-assed coverage of Iran. I'm sure the execs and shareholders were waiting for some other news story...
And I'm sure they're very happy that four very-famous to why-is-he-famous people died. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Billy Mays all died within several days of one another. This gave cable the excuse to stop with all that boring Iran stuff and cover something really worthwhile. Even then, they all got scooped on the Michael Jackson situation by TMZ.
These deaths allowed cable news the opportunity to again start covering people that look like us (well, except for Michael) and speak our language. No more of those people that look odd and speak some sort of gibberish. I'm not sure on the exact statistics, but ratings went up at least 200% for Fox, CNN and MSNBC.
And we all are, of course, shaped by the culture we grew up in. A culture that has largely been shaped by values and goals largely seen as being "American." Something the MSM has helped to push ever since they switched from being a news center to being a profit center. So, it was inevitable, but no less sickening, that as the news of Michael Jackson's hospitalization and subsequent death spread, it took over Twitter also.
#Iran and #iranelection had been at the top of Twitter's Trending Topics (TTT) for almost two weeks and all of a sudden they were completely off the list. Full of Michael Jackson, MJ, RIP MJ and various song and album titles. I remember a couple of Iranian tweeters, having finally awoken, posting what was essentially a "WTF" reaction.
So both mediums have the weakness of being taken over by what is more "popular" news. The huge difference is that MSM tells you what is popular and Twitter is driven solely by it's users. Ultimately, we control what is most popular. As the grip on news by the MSM is weakened, perhaps the sensationalist/celebrity "news" will grow a bit stale.
Another example of the possible power that the online community now has could perhaps be seen in the performance of the United States Men's National Team (USMNT) in FIFA's Confederations Cup. Football, as it will be called in this blog, is not very popular in these United States, as the MSM is quick to point out whenever it gets the chance. It will never ever catch on, it's boring, there's no scoring, blah blah blah. This is what the MSM has been telling us as far back as I can remember.
Quick history lesson. In the 1950 World Cup, we beat England. Then fell of the face of the football globe for 40 years until we finally qualified for the Cup again in 1990. Since then, the program has made great strides. The US qualified for four more World Cups (with a fifth imminent); they beat number one ranked Brazil in the 1998 Gold Cup; they made an improbable run to the quarterfinals in the 2002 World Cup, beating Portugal and Mexico before falling to Germany 1-0.
Then, the 2009 Confederations Cup. Having played like utter crap the first two games, I think the team had to be somewhat taken aback with the outrage and criticism coming at them from the Internet. When had the USMNT program ever been under any sort of media pressure? Never. The MSM only writes standard fluff pieces about a match, no sort of analysis or critique. US Soccer had been free to run the program however they saw fit with no questions asked.
Now, blogs and online columnists were ripping the organization and players. Bradley's head was being called for. There was actual pressure on the team to succeed, because guess what, people in the States care about football. So what happened? They responded by thrashing Egypt 3-0 and thanks to a Dossena own goal, Brazil beat Italy to send the US into a match against number one ranked Spain. Which, we all know, they somehow beat 2-0 to get to their first ever FIFA senior level tournament final. A devastating 3-2 loss to Brazil in the final hurt, but it showed how much football as grown.
This is of course merely speculation, but I think it's entirely possible that again the blogs took the place of the MSM. The majority of the team has come of age in the Internet age, so they are wired like most of us under 30. I know of at least four players that have Twitter accounts. It's hard to think you're doing a bad job if no one ever told you. The MSM never told them they were sucking because the MSM never talked about them. Maybe the blogger's comments finally got it into the player's heads that their recent performances were not acceptable. Bradley even seemed like he knew what he was doing for a bit.
In direct contrast to the coverage of Iran comes the coverage of the Honduran coup. As you might say, what coverage? Whereas the new media excelled in picking up the ball dropped by the MSM in Iran, it has not done so in Honduras. A democratic government has been ousted by the military, people are protesting in the streets. At the very least, a bit similar to the Iran situation. The Huffington Post and Andrew Sullivan have a few posts, but it seems that The Lede has none. Why is this?
I believe the difference is that Iran's young people are an extremely wired bunch. I saw somewhere that Iran had the third most bloggers in the world. They had readily available Internet access, to tweet, blog, Facebook, whatever. I imagine Honduras is not quite the same. We were being told what was happening in Iran as it happened, the people let us know. It has not been the same for Honduras, unfortunately.
Where the new media excels in using it's limited resources and collecting raw data it fails when there is little to no raw data. At this point, it's up to the MSM with their wealth and overseas correspondents to get the story and present it to us. But of course, they won't, because dead celebrities are more important.
So, what to think of all of this? Unfortunately, cable news is still how most Americans get their news. They dictate what news people see and hear about. And because they care about ratings and profit margins, more often than not, the stories are crap.
As an alternative to cable, most people used to go to the newspapers. But, the traditional, national, powerhouse papers are dying. They will never again be able to compete like they're used to. Papers might have to become more localized and get their national and international news only from wire services, instead of having correspondents all over the globe.
As the newspapers fail, the new media needs to become that alternative to cable. Twitter and bloggers have proved how important and how effective they can be. However, they have also shown they are still prone to crap news stories. They don't have resources to pick up news from countries that aren't that well wired. New media is still in it's infancy though and something will happen to make up for these faults and others.
Of utmost importance is that news is becoming a two-way street. Instead of us being told what is happening and what to think about it, or even being told what to care about, we have shown that we can ingest news straight from the source and form our own opinions. We can now tell the MSM what is important and what we want covered.
Cable's dominance will probably not end anytime soon, but I believe as the generations growing up in the Internet age begin to grow older, cable news' influence will fall. No one thought a 24 hour news network would work, but CNN started the slow death of the newspapers. Just the same, new media has its detractors. As the population turnover continues, TV in it's current form will eventually seem as obsolete as newspapers do now. New media still has a ways to go. The gap between the MSM and new media is still great. Asked a few weeks ago, I would've said the gap was next to insurmountable. Then, the new media stepped up and proved it's worth. I can now envision a end to the MSM as we see it.
So, I've decided to review my Netflix rentals every now and then, because my opinion is very important. These aren't going to be in depth, pages long reviews. Those are boring. No one except the geekiest of film geeks reads those. If anyone reads a film review, they basically want to know if the movie sucks or not. So, that's what I'm going to try to do. Tell you if the movie sucks in as few words as I can.
Rocky IV
Over the top, yet still awesome. See Rocky run up a mountain in Russia. See Rocky defeat a man twice his size. See Rocky end the Cold War. Drago is awesome.
The Fighting Kentuckian
Standard Wayne movie. Except with Oliver Hardy in it. This, makes it a must see. It's Hardy, of Laurel & Hardy. Anyone understand the meaning of that? No one got the joke in the Borat movie.
High Plains Drifter
I was put off by this movie at first... very confusing. Until the last five minutes, when it's revealed why Clint was doing what he was doing and why it is fucking badass. Watch it, to be blown away at the end.
Robocop
Peter Wells is a freaky looking bastard, even before he's Robocop. Incredibly violent. Kind of awesome, in a strange way.
Rocky V
Absolutely ridiculous. Only see it if you want to laugh at a silly, stupid movie.
Predator
Classic fucking Ahnold. "GET TO THE CHOPPER" "If it bleeds, we can kill it." Plus, Carl fucking Weathers. If Tobias likes him, I like him.
The Running Man
Book was better, and that was written by Stephen King. So, whatever that means.
Total Recall
More classic Ahnold. Plus, a midget with a gun. Plus, a woman with three boobs. Must. Fucking. See.
Rollerball
Too long, but the brutal cold-hearted violence makes up for it.
At Close Range
If that picture of Walken doesn't make you want to see this film, we shouldn't be friends.
What to say about Seattle? I've been here for a month and a half and I've been putting off writing this post. Even as I sit here, I'm having trouble thinking about what to write. The past two cities I've lived, London and Boston, have both evoked a response. Boston I liked almost immediately, most of that revolving around the Red Sox and the baseball passion in the city. That is, until I realized how many douchebag sports fans there are there. Still, I liked Boston and enjoyed my time there, for the most part. And London... well, it was London.
So, what shall I write about? I guess, very basically, I should list some likes and dislikes. I like the hills, the views of mountains in the distance, how it's still light out after 10pm... aah screw it, we all know I'm a pessimist at heart.
Here's what sucks. Stage curfew of 12:30 for shows. No drinking on stage. How the hell can you not let bands drink and rock? The public transportation. While the bus system is decent, I loathe buses. Give me light rail or subway any day. A light rail is opening soon, but it's the third or fourth such rail based transportation in the city. Maybe... I don't know, connect them all? The Space Needle blows, the Monorail is stupid. The guy at hot dog stand royally fucked up my Chicago style dog. There also seems to be an air of douchebaggery/snobbery/hypocrisy from a lot of people. On the Pacific Science Center they have an estimation of the tons of emissions from Washington state... Yet almost everyone owns a car, and as I've mentioned, light rail transportation is non-existent.
But I don't hate it. I'm meh about it. I've enjoyed the handful of bars and eateries I've been to. There seem to be decent people here, yet it's hard to tell for sure, due to my unemployment and the Seattle Freeze.
A lackluster first post, and that's being polite. I'll start putting up restaurant/bar reviews, since that's where I spend most of my time anyway. Several places have already made a regular out of me.
PS I've added a link to my mediocre photo album of Seattle. YOU CAN SEE WHERE I SLEEP.
My last week in London was very busy and it was incredible. And I still managed to write my last paper somewhere in all the madness. Monday was the much anticipated Christmas dinner at G6. G6 always had the best parties. Even during reading week, when no one was around, they were able to pull off a great robot party for Chandler's birthday. It was epic, as was this night.
We did secret Santa, and of course half of the gifts were alcohol. One other gift that did get a lot of use though, was an electrical Santa that walked around. It was pretty cool. Again, there were about 20 people in the kitchen. We also had another amazing spread. The highlight though, was Paul from Newcastle's turkey. He cooked the turkey draped in bacon, so all of the bacon juice dipped into the turkey and merged with the turkey. It was so moist and delicious, easily the best turkey I've ever had. Before we all ate though, we had to do the crackers, which I guess is a tradition in England. They're little party favors, you pull them apart, they make a sound and then inside there's a little toy and a paper crown, which everyone must wear. The party went long and it was fun. And the end of the night, the only people left were me, Scott, Paul and Elisabeth. None of us even lived there. But it didn't matter, no one cared. Well, except for someone else living in G block, who called security on us a number of times. Three times they came up to talk to us, even though two of those times were before the quiet time kicked in at 11pm, so they really couldn't do anything. But Francis came up around 3am for the last time and took our names down. Of course us Americans had no problem with this, we were leaving in a week, what did it matter?
Tuesday was a bit of an off day, no doubt because of the night before. I went to quiz night for a little bit, but I was exhausted and wanted to rest up for Sandwich, so I went home.
Wednesday, Scott, Chris and I had our last Goldsmiths brunch. Our tears mixed well with our breakfasts. I went to my last class EVER and then back to my flat to get ready. People started pregaming around 9/9:30 and then we all met at the usual place, D5 before we went. All the girls decided to get decked out in their best dresses for some reason, so they all looked amazing and us guys are just sitting there in our regular Sandwich clothes feeling like bums. But it didn't last long. Sandwich was epic, we got there about an hour earlier and spent 4 hours just on the dance floor, I was so incredibly dehydrated. Instead of waiting in line at the bar just to get some water, I would go down to the bathroom and drink water out of the faucet, I was dying. Epic Sandwich, to finish it off.
Thursday Debi, Scott, Sam, Chris and I went up to Camden to go to Andy's Taverna, a Greek place. Debi, Sam and I had been there before, it's good. I had the spanakopita to start and then the mixed grill for an entree, which is just a lot of grilled meat on the plate, so of course it was good. Then we went to the Hob because Nelle was leaving on Friday instead of Saturday with the rest of us. So there were drinks and the first round of crying by the girls. Then instead of working on my paper, I succumbed to the food and the drink and went to bed.
Friday morning I woke up really early, I planned to get the paper done, turn it in, shower, then go to Central and do some shopping and go to some museums. Since I only had gotten through 3/4 of the National Gallery, I wanted to go back there and finish it, and I also thought of going back to the Imperial War Museum and going through the ground floor, since I hadn't had time for that when I was first in London in 2004. So I wrote my 2500 word paper, turned it in and went to Hatchard's in Central to get some books. Then I went to the Imperial War Museum and finished it, going through the WWI and WWII exhibits and the Blitz Experience and the Trench Experience. I also went through a bit of Monty's museum, and the exhibit on conflicts since the end of WWII. I forgot how big that place is, I spent a good three hours there, so I didn't have time to go to the National Gallery.
That night we all gathered at the Hob for our usual Friday night BBQ dinner. Everyone showed up, of course. It was a merry, jolly time. We closed out the Hob and then reconvened at D5 with whiskey and beer. And of course we had our last bacon night. There were people sitting on the kitchen floor, drinking and hugging and crying on shoulders. It was a great night, the perfect end to a great semester abroad. Many many great friends were made. There were so many people I would've liked to interact with more, but there just wasn't the time. Going abroad for a semester is a great experience, but it's also really hard to leave behind.
When I landed in Boston, it was maybe about 10˚ out, with harsh winds and flurries. Quite a change from an island that doesn't really get below freezing all to often. All of a sudden, my sweatshirt, which had kept me warm for so long, was useless. For me, it is harder to transition back into life in the States. All the people and the comforts that I had gotten used to in London are now gone. There's no accents, I have to relearn which way to cross the street, the weather is horrible, there's no St. John, there's no Goldsmiths cafe, there's no Hobgoblin, and hardest thing of all, there are none of the people that I saw almost every day for three months. I will always cherish the memories I have of New Cross and everything that was involved with it.
The Thursday I left for Amsterdam was unlike most. There was no Sandwich the night before. Instead, I had awoken at eight. I did two loads of laundry. I finished one paper and then wrote another. I turned three papers in to their respective departments and to the international office. I packed, completely. How did I pull this off? I don't know. I finished writing three papers in about 72 hours (including research), and that includes watching a full movie and several clips from other movies to write one of my papers. I am a golden god. I was ready for the weekend. Only one more paper to write when I got back, and that was simple. I was ready to relax and have some fun.
I was flying in on EasyJet with Cait, Scott and Jen. Eventually we would meet Chris, Shank, Derek, Fran, Avivah and Jordan there. Big group. Apparently, Shank and Derek were supposed to be on our flight, much to our surprise. And apparently we were supposed to go to the airport with them? None of us knew this, due to major miscommunication. But it seemed to work out, they were going to catch a later flight. Except when they got to Gatwick, they found out they had booked the earlier flight... oh, and by the way, they were also to late for the flight they booked anyway. So they slept in the airport and made a Friday flight.
Cait and I were extremely tired, since we were both up writing papers late/early. Instead of going into the city center, we went to Leidseplein, a square near our hostel (which was wonderful, by the way.) We went to go eat at an overpriced restaurant, I had a cheeseburger. Then we went to this place called the Bulldog, which was straight out of the 80s, it was pretty awesome. We sat there for awhile, drinking Heinekens (because they actually taste good there) and watching Cait fall asleep at the table. It was strange seeing people at the bar of any age just smoking a joint. There were these two older guys just sitting at the bar, talking to the bartender sharing a huge joint. It was a pretty good time.
Friday we had an unspoken agreement to sleep in. I don't know about Jen and Scott, but Cait and I really needed it. So we eventually get ready and set out, with our ultimate goal being the Red Light District. We first hit Dam Square, which has the Royal Palace and the National Monument. Also close by was this fry place that boasted they were Amsterdam's best fries. So we got some. I got the "Fry Sauce" which was some mayonnaise based sauce. They were excellent fries. I'm not a fry connoisseur, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were the best in Amsterdam. Then we wandered around the red light district for awhile, and well, I can't get into that, as this blog is family-oriented. Eventually we met up with the people that were coming in that day. We met at this awesome hostel that had a huge bar on the ground floor. Stayed there for awhile, then since the new people hadn't seen the red light district, we went back there for awhile. Eventually got some food from some place I don't remember and went home.
Saturday our group met up with the others and walked to the Anne Frank house. It was a decent walk from where we stayed, Vondelpark. I was able to appreciate how beautiful the city actually is. All you hear about Amsterdam is the red light district, coffee shops, Heineken... but the city is actually really really nice. The canals make it very interesting. Another thing, is that there are usually more bikes on the road than cars. The bikes have their own lanes, their own traffic signals, it's really cool. It's definitely a place I would like to go again, and perhaps rent a bike to take around town.
Just getting in line at the Anne Frank house is very sobering. And it's contagious. All annoying tourists cease to be annoying, there are no kids running around, no one really laughs. I haven't read the diary in probably 15 years, so I my memories of it are very few, but the others seemed to know the story well. They were more affected by being there. I just found it amazing, seeing it, how many people lived in that small area and how they were able to avoid detection for so long.
After the house, we walked down the street a little and found a pancake place where we ate brunch. Jordan and I got an amazing hot chocolate with rum and I got a bacon pancake. They're not the pancakes we have in the States, they're very thin and very big. And it was very good. Then our groups split up, they went to the Van Gogh Museum and we went to the Heineken factory. Again, Heineken factory was like all the others, except instead of giving you a full pint at the end, they gave you a half pint. Cheap Dutch.
After that, we went back to the hostel and ate dinner and had a few pitchers. We ordered a traditional Dutch treat, which was just fried meatballs. And since it was fried meat, it was very tasty. I also had lasagna, since there wasn't much of a selection. Eventually we made plans with the other group to meet back at Leidseplein. We tried to find a good place and originally settled on the Bulldog, the place we had been on Thursday night. This time, however we went upstairs and through the glass doors, which allows for more activity to take place. The group got thinner and thinner until eventually I left with Scott, leaving behind Jen, Cait, Derek and Shank . Scott and I immediately went looking for food and the first thing we saw was McDonalds, so that's what we got. I lasted all that time without getting American food and on my last weekend in Europe, I broke down. Thanks, Amsterdam. We were woken up at 5 in the morning by Jen and Cait returning from some club they went to after Bulldog. They were just as loud and annoying as the Welsh in Dublin. Great times.
For this last week, we have a Christmas dinner party, last quiz night, last Sandwich, our dinner at St. John fell through, so we're going for Greek, then the last night in London. Quite a lot to do, and I still have a paper to finish.
Picture link added on the right.
