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I just read this article from Newsweek about if it matters if John McCain is computer literate. Andrew Romano made a good point when he said most of us are computer savvy because we work with computers in the workplace, but when you’re a Senator or even President, Internet surfing is left up to staffers and legislative assistants. In fact, a computer is not even in the Oval Office for security purposes. It’s not that one does not want to learn, it’s all about the necessity to use the computer for daily activities… here’s what Romano had to say:

McCain Can’t Use ‘a Google.’ So What?

The only problem? This line of reasoning is misleading. For one thing, McCain’s computer illiteracy doesn’t reflect a lack of curiosity–it reflects a lack of necessity. Over the past 10 years, most adult Americans have encountered and explored computers primarily in the workplace, where the ability to communicate and find information on the Internet has gradually become a required skill. But McCain’s job in the U.S. Senate–where all communication and information has to be filtered through staffers–has actually made fluency more difficult to achieve (or at least less necessary). When aides are responding to your messages and briefing you on every imaginable subject, the incentive to get online sort of disappears.

I know that I would not want the President of the United States to fall for any phishing scams nor get Spam for Al Qaeda. I would rather see the President work less on his MySpace page and work harder at bringing down gas prices,bringing a peaceful end to the War in Iraq, and finding a cure for cancer.

An article in the New York Times reports that a new “citizen” journalism site is about to emerge.  Wired.com is behind the deal with Jay Rosen, who is a journalism professor at NYU.  Rosen’s idea is fascinating.  I agree, the world is a story and who else better to write the world’s history other than citizens.  

 My dissertation will build upon what types of thematic rhetorical strategies do citizens use to create social knowledge.  Going back to the 17th and 18th century coffeehouses in England, you would find the citizens spreading the news.  Stories were abundant.  Right now storytelling is changing.  The global community can now participate in the storytelling process rather than just a bystander.  Good luck to Jay Rosen’s web site.

All the World’s a Story 

Journalism has always been a product of networks. A reporter receives an assignment, begins calling “sources” — people he or she knows or can find. More calls follow and, with luck and a deadline looming, the reporter will gain enough mastery of the topic to sit down at a keyboard and tell the world a story.

A new experiment wants to broaden the network to include readers and their sources. Assignment Zero (zero.newassignment.net/), a collaboration between Wired magazine and NewAssignment.Net, the experimental journalism site established by Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University, intends to use not only the wisdom of the crowd, but their combined reporting efforts — an approach that has come to be called “crowdsourcing.”

 

 Lisa Snedecker of Media Life Newspapers reports that citizen journalism, as it seems like a good idea to be able to cover more local news, newspapers are weary about trusting citizen journalists who might get the story, but worry if it will be a good and ethical story.

A most noble idea, citizen journalism

 

Because they’re coming from the local community, these citizen reporters can bring with them alliances with local political factions, and they’ll certainly have embedded views about the mayor and council and the most recent bond issue.

So while the paper may save on reporter salaries, it will have to have that many more editors to vet the stories and rewrite them for publication. That’s going to add substantial costs to their local reporting budgets. And even then they’ll have to work that much harder to keep mistakes out of the paper.

As papers increase local coverage, they’ll simply have that many more people out reporting–and that many more potential mistakes.

Interesting… does the Internet influence voter’s political decisions.  Today, more than ever, citizens are participating in the political conversation.  Does this scare the political world?  Maybe because they must listen to the citizens more than ever.  It all comes down to checks and balances.

 

Tony Blair’s outgoing chief strategy adviser fears the internet could be fuelling a “crisis” in the relationship between politicians and voters.

Matthew Taylor - who stressed he was speaking as a “citizen” not a government spokesman - said the web could be “fantastic” for democracy.

But it was too often used to encourage the “shrill discourse of demands” that dominated modern politics.

Here’s a cool video I found about Citizen journalism. 

 From pamphlet to blog

 

Broadcast news magazines are on the decline.  Maybe they are as plentiful as reality television.  Maybe we are in information overload?  Despite information overload, we are also in idiot overload!  Is anyone tired of reality television that showcases people vying for their 15 minutes of fame?  I am.  I would rather see Diane Sawyer on three news magazine shows than watch Wife Swap or even worse Beauty and the Geek 2.  Don’t forget Reality television thinks Americans can not parent!  Supernanny should give you tried and true solutions to keeping a peaceful existence with one’s children.  

Do you know what is really on the decline–my television viewing habits.  I view less and less television each year… and that to me is a good thing.  The only night I HAVE to watch television is Sunday nights on ABC–Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy!  Why?  Because each show has professional actors and smart writing. 

In 1961 Newton Minnow said television is a vast wasteland. His words ring true to this day and age of reality television….