Ink By The Case

In the heyday of print journalism it was not uncommon to hear the phrase “You don’t want to argue with people that buy ink by the case!” -- especially if it was someone like William Randolph Hearst. While the admonition still applies, it needs an update to the modern world of electronic citizen journalism.

Almost anyone can operate a free blog or get a free website, although the latter often requires acceptance of sponsorship advertising. And even that is not much different than writing a Letter to the Editor of a newspaper that subsists on classified ads. However, an author also needs some education and conceptual skills for navigating the Internet and its assorted user interfaces. Experiments like Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Wikipedia, some social networking sites, and online collaboration workspaces are helping people experience the potential that the future Internet foretells.

In the blogging world, the author has access to unlimited supplies of electronic ink. The author can say darn near anything they want without serious repercussions. Anyone can be a pundit. Yet, Joe Citizen faces barriers and likely lacks experience, time and skills to build a dialogue with others. Until the technology improves, this is simply the way the world works. The technology will, of course, change.

The younger generation is always adopting and adapting to the new paradigm. Someday we may achieve media transparency when having a voice in the marketplace of ideas is universal and unencumbered by technology and external controls. Until and after the transparency is achieved our civilization needs to deal with the social aspects of communication: the digital divide, objectivity, as well as, ethics and standards.