Our weekly round-up of the strongest thinking and writing on the media business that you might not have seen.
Clay Shirky tells us to stop worrying and learn to love the fact that any moron can produce content.
The past was not as golden, nor is the present as tawdry, as the pessimists suggest, but the only thing really worth arguing about is the future. It is our misfortune, as a historical generation, to live through the largest expansion in expressive capability in human history, a misfortune because abundance breaks more things than scarcity. We are now witnessing the rapid stress of older institutions accompanied by the slow and fitful development of cultural alternatives. Just as required education was a response to print, using the Internet well will require new cultural institutions as well, not just new technologies.
Newsweek’s Tumblr gives Howard Kurtz some notes on his latest piece.
While journalists get into the business for various reasons — vicarious thrills, investigative zeal, outsize ego — ultimately they’re at the mercy of the marketplace.[ED-as opposed to who? Bricklayers? Florists? Bond traders? This lede is a pretty obvious cliché, Howard; pls rework] And that marketplace seems [‘Seems’ is pretty squishy. Has the marketplace sent a message or not?] to have sent a very discouraging message to Newsweek.
The New York Observer’s John Koblin proclaims libel dead. Yay!.
Media lawyers have a few theories to explain the rapid decline. A track record of limited success for plaintiffs discourages people from filing such cases-clearly a good for media organizations. In addition, the Web has allowed for quick corrections, heading lawsuits off before they are even filed. Some individuals now even post their own responses on the Web, allowing them to vent steam before heading to court. On the darker side, some media pros wonder whether the declining finances of media companies may be limiting the type of journalism that used to anger subjects and produce libel suits.
The Morning News interviews the always sharp David Remnick.
RB: It appears to me that, in addition to being fascinated by Obama, you really like him. Could it be because in some ways he is like you? Or he manifests some of the same personality traits?
DR: Having been a journalist long enough, I can smell a conceit or even a contrivance when it comes across the New Jersey Turnpike. And that is a conceit to begin with and for me to endorse it would be a colossal conceit.
John Graham-Cumming gives us an eight-step program on how to write Malcolm Gladwell.
6. Give things names and remember Douglas Adams’ rule of capital letters. Capital letters make things important. For example, in The Tipping Point, Gladwell conjures up the following important concepts: The Law of the Few, The Stickiness Factor, and The Power of Context. In Outliers, there’s The Matthew Effect and The 10,000-Hour Rule.
