I wrote a quick letter to the editor in response to Eugene Robinson’s article about Kanye West. I wanted to share a bit of the process as I thought it served to highlight the delta between traditional media and peer-to-peer or participatory media–Media 2.0.
It started with Robinsonis column that proposed Kanye West was denied the Grammy for Album of the Year because he was iuppityi. I suggested that Robinsonis piece was conveniently one-sidedothat there are lots of reasons to not like Kanye West, none of them having to do with his iGeorge Bush doesnit care about black peoplei comments. I ended the letter by suggesting that Robinsonis defense of West, specifically his inappropriate use of the racially-loaded and incendiary term iuppityi was an example of the same type of myopic, entitled attitude thatis gotten West into trouble previously.
But that part was cut and the rest was edited, though it didn’t change the note materially. As a matter of fact, the editor also caught two minor but embarrassing mistakes, improved the editorial quality of letter, and captured the essence of what I wrote.
- But only because of one personis whimOe
- And as a result of a collaboration between two people who arenit peersOe
- Presented with no transparency into the process…
- One week after Robinsonis piece ranOe
- And itis an edited version of what I wrote.
On sites like BRO, anyone can engage anyone else (with only a few exceptions). And writers, whether theyire official contributors or commenters are regularly required to defend, clarify or, sometimes, modify their positions. The tools of Media 2.0 recognize that ideas arenit complete until theyire tested and exposed to other ideas and new information. Media 2.0 sees the news as a conversation not a lecture, as participatory with everyone being accountable for what they think and sayOein real time.
If I had encountered Robinsonis piece on a blog, I would have been able to engage him the way I wanted to, without an editor as an intermediary. He may have even been compelled to defend what he wrote. And I would have been called out for not knowing that Kanye acted up at the 2004 American Music Awards instead of in 2005 and for being unaware that iYouire My Typei was only released as a single and not a track on Late Registration. And other commenters could have added their thoughts to the discussion and everyone reading would have benefited in some way from the exchange.
News is becoming a dialogue among a flat, networked audience accountable to each other for the information they present and their own ideas. Media 2.0 is ascendant because it uses technology toward a very simple endoto engage a community in conversation.