To the class of 2004 by Howard Rheingold
To those of you who aspire to journalism: Don't get me wrong on this ? there are still journalists of great courage, integrity, and inventiveness, and they make a difference every day. But their editors and publishers are caught in a situation not of their making. A couple of months ago, I was invited to participate in one of those old media meets new media discussions that have become fashionable lately. All the usual suspects were there - the household names of newspaper, newsmagazine, radio, and television. Not the reporters, but their bosses. These are people who are deeply worried about the future of their businesses. When I had the opportunity to speak up, I acknowledged that I understand from personal experience that if you can't stay in business, other issues are moot. Then I reminded them that their product is different from the other widgets that their corporate parents produce.
There is a long and deep connection between the growth of journalism on this continent and the history of the American experiment in democracy. An older James Madison emphasized that connection when he wrote, in a letter to W.T. Barry in 1822, words that are carved in marble at the Library of Congress today: "A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
I reminded the assembled managers of profit centers for content conglomerates that there would be no newspaper business today to worry about its future if the US Post Office had not subsidized the "penny press" at the beginning of the 19th century. So although I never want to dismiss the importance of worrying about a business model that is under attack from all sides, I do feel it's important for everyone in the journalism business to consider, from time to time, their responsibility to citizens of a free society.
I managed to repeat this message in different ways three or four times during this seminar on the future of news media. And every time I piped up, the assembled group looked at me as if I had just bitten off the head of a live chicken. They just didn't want to think about what they were hearing. And I don't mean to assign blame. From online advertising to the cost of paper to the decline in young subscribers, this group have been given a lot of cause to worry about their future.
So far, I've talked about the serious challenges you ? and the rest of us ? face. But there's another side to this turbulent moment in the history of communication. While all these attacks on expression are underway and barriers to communication are being put in place, people around the globe are making entirely new kinds of art and journalism. Young people in every part of the world are using and inventing blogs, wikis, mobile messaging, desktop video, digital music, online animation, social software.
