How today’s internet is killing our culture — it is the tagline for Cult of the Amateur, a book by Andrew Keen, which charges that democratization of content creation on the internet,
“..despite its lofty idealization, is undermining truth, souring civic discourse, and belittling expertise, experience, and talent..“
I am curious about the facts supporting Keen’s claim. It would be suspect to posit that the internet devalues content produced via traditional media channels, without supporting evidence.
One of my personal goals is to span the digital divide so that my internet content is readily accessible, and easily consumed via big media channels such as magazines and television.
Is it a fair assumption that democratization can effectively facilitate increased awareness in the areas of social, cultural, economic, and media literacy, contrary to what Keen lays down?
I blame the economy, which does not pay for experience but instead hires the cheapest help, for producing the cult of the amateur, not the internet.
Also, I think the internet allows for the exposure of lies and ineptitude, which might be what folks like Keen are wary of (especially if they have no data to support their claims).
The core point I took away from cult was that anonymity, to keen, breeds incompetence and the worst kinds of discourse, so it’s actually anti-democratic in some ways. Keen doesn’t offer hard numbers because it’s basically a long essay on how the internet is changing culture especially (the music industry looms large in his book, as does journalism).
The economy does pay for experience, which is why you have cultural professionals such as editors, writers, producers, musicians, filmmakers. It especially pays for distilled experience.
What is happening is that we are now also rewarding mediocrity in large amounts, that is where the problem comes in.
Surely this answers very little in the debate, but I do find it fascinating and necessary as a discussion.
ps Keen never says the internet *cannot* facilitate the things you hope for, only that it lacks a lot of the cultural professionals needed to do so. Hence things like this last writers strike.
There was also a great piece by michael wolff (http://tinyurl.com/yww6gg) in a recent vanity fair about the old media side of the divide that explains this perfectly. He hosts lots of panels with top media execs in major conglomerates tasked with keeping their fingers on the pulse of new media. To his knowledge, NONE of them understand wtf is going on.
“One of my frequent jobs is to moderate conferences where entertainment execs try to talk. . . about new media. They know nothing.”
So yes, please let’s span that chasm!