The core question is:What makes this form of "journalism " different from what came before? how does the new medium we are swimming around in change or affect the results we achieve? Is it a matter of scale? Speed? Multiplicity?Is interactivity a real difference, or just a rewiring of Letters to the Editor?

Did Mass Media really begin with the Printing Press? Did Cyberspace begin with the Internet?
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And in regard to purposes: are the unintended consequences of our activities more significant than the conscious objective?

The first printed book was the Bible; the unintended consequence of the printing press was to destroy the hegemony of the Bible.

The objective of the Aztec power elite was to keep the masses ignorant and supersitious. The unintended consequence of that was to render the social fabric so weak that it was destroyed in an instant by a handful of determined individuals who exploited just those weaknesses. Compare Saddam's Iraq. Contrast England in WWII.

My inclination is to believe that there is nothing new under the sun, so it will take a lot to convince me that the core elemants of our communication technology are any different from those of the Sumerians who produced writing as an accounting medium and unleashed consequences that are playing out to this day.

"THE BLOG"

Interested in this subject? Post your definition of what a BLOG is. and how to best use it.

• The first thing is to understand the medium: what is it? How is this medium best exploited? Apply McLuhan.
• The second is to focus on the objective. What purposes are best served by this medium? Personal? Political? Social? All and many others?
• How is a blog dissimilar from, say, the Spectator Papers? Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats"? or Eleanor Roosevelt's column "My Day"? The "New Journalism" of the Seventies? Is a blog a "mass" medium?
• Are the popular effects of the old journalism mirrored in the effects of the blogosphere today? aren't they just exponentially bigger? Or are they resally different?
• Other aspects: Interactivity; breaking news (tsunami info from the field)
• Negative potential; Disinformation (deliberatewly created by enemies) Spying; Apply Orwell. Misinformation. Gossip reported as fact. Unsubstantiated statements on equal plane with substantial research.

And so on...

Playlist

WRDP Show #12 Playlist
Easter Sunday Program 4/16/06: Olivier Messiaen: Couleurs de la Cite Celeste/ Orchestre du Domaine Musical, Pierre Boulez (Erato)Mahler: Symphony 2, 4: Urlicht, 5: Im Tempo des Scherzo/ Eliahu Inbal, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (Denon)Biber: The Resurrection from Die Rosenkranz-Sonaten, John Holloway, violin, Tragicomedia (Virgin)Brahms: Schicksalsied/ Danish National Symphony & Choir, Gerd Albrecht (Chandos)Beethoven: Christus am Olberge/ Domingo, Orgornasova, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Kent Nagano (Harmonia Mundi)Derek Jarman/ ST: Blue, 1&2John Corigliano: Sym 1, (1): Of Rage & Remembrance Barenboim, Chicago Sym., Stephen Hough, piano. (Erato)Arvo Part: Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten/Neeme Jarvi, Scottish Nat Orch. (Chandos)Bach: Aria, Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen, from Cantata No. 82, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (Nonesuch)