Patchwork Journalism Equals Good Trouble

Image courtesy of keithdrake.com

Participatory journalism as defined by J.D. Lasica is an undeniably sexy democratic concept. After years of swallowing hegemonic drippings from 'news that counts', with the dawning of Web 2.0, we have become our own media mongers. Nothing gets the stuffed shirts more hot and bothered than lack of quality control, and this is a beautiful thing.

David Coursey is one of many dinosaurs 'pure' journalists who fear for this model's misinforming tendencies. He points out some cheeky monkey who, in 2005, loaded a 'respectable' journalist's Wikipedia biography with false information that implicated him in both Kennedy assassinations. He was stigmatized for this gag.

Pelt me with clogs and cabbage if you must, but I find such harsh use of the technology to be pretty damn interesting, if not entertaining.

While I am all for the gradual emergence of 'truth' and alternative press via internet, chaos and falsity are far more provocative. Trash will always be more interesting than the mothball smell of old track records and reputations. Besides, it's about time us bitter members of the proletariat (the so-called 80%) stirred some unwanted brown nuggets into the elite's oatmeal.

Everyone remembers the anthrax scare that once had us all opening grandmama's letters with a gas mask and an icepick. Think of this as belated revenge; our time to shine with unfounded claims, bizarre discrepancies, and viral marketing. Petty techno-fun begets the blind consumption of fear!

Bottom-line is that - as evidenced by the two benevolent fellows in Julie's previous post - the "multiplicity of online sources" that Cory Doctorow champions continues to offer us news that is more human, less generic, and simply necessary for our evolution as a culture.

Regardless of credibility and quality control, at least this brand of happenings isn't stale or limited to one audience. The 'media monsters' that we stitch together may not be perfect, but they are hungry for change, and for a voice that operates on more than one didactic level. We'll hold each other up while the dinosaurs puppets opposition continues to try and talk us down.