Truth is an Abundant Economy

Media's media. At the heart of it, I feel that's all Cory Doctorow needed to say. Though it appears to be his duty to inform us of the future, he hasn't really started writing for it yet. In a word, brevity.

I appreciate his point though, it reminds me of an angry little zine article I wrote when I was fourteen (Everyone's a liar!). Indeed, you cannot trust everything you read on the Internet, nor in the newspapers, and I think it's evidence of the Net's awesome aura of change that suggests this has to be stated, that it has created this atmosphere where everything old is new again.

To me, things are more the same now then they ever were, if every medium humanity has ever used has worked for and against us, it would be foolish to expect anything else from the Web.

For example, "Publish, then select" appeals personally to me. I have the time, resources and inclination to treat my own life as an abundant resource to be wasted on the Internet, examining stories from as many perspectives as I could ever want. For the average sum of humanity, those who may not be on their parents dole, with time to waste and a high speed connection, an abundance of answers does not provide clarity. A multitude of voices can be an intimidating thing. Most people rely on Yahoo! News to deal with the complexity of choices available.

I can appreciate a reluctance to give up on the strengths of educated journalism, but I fear the power that the long tail is actually managing to give to the Man, whoever he may be. Traditional journalists are going to have their hands full dealing with the effects of conglomeration and consolidation, to which the Internet is so finely suited, and it may well be up to those untrained individuals willing to tell the truth to inform us in the future. Like the CBC.

The improbably named Pip Coburn wrote an excellent, meandering article while eating a salad that looks both at Facebook's attempt to manipulate the long tail for profit, by hacking at it's users privacy, and at how protest works within the long tail. Things get blown out of proportion very easily on the Net, and it's hard to tell how many people are complaining about something, and why.

There clearly are people using the Net to speak for freedom, however, which I fear can get forgotten in the debate over whether someone is legitimate, and which definitely will be lost if the Man has his way.