Andrew Keene

1. How does Keene define democratized media, and what are his main issues with this trend? Use examples from the web in the form of links.

He uses the word to describe the phenomenon of the amateur undermining the professional to create media himself. It means the dismissal of the middleman. His main issues with democratized media include the idea that artists will merely be exploited and not paid for their work. He believes that people will accept lies from faulty sources and no longer place value in professional content. This “democratization” is actually the opposite: rather than getting more truth and solid judgement, people will only know the internet’s superficial observations of the world. He says that “the line between fact and fiction becomes blurred.”

2. Compare and contrast Keene’s take on social media with Douglas Rushkoff’s. Which one speaks to your own experience and why?

I think Rushkoff is more concerned with people using the internet and technology too much and replacing their real lives with virtual ones. Keene is more concerned about the validity of information on the internet. I think I agree that it is more concerning that people are using technology too much rather than going out and enjoying life. I'm not someone who would really just love to sit at my house all day and only leaves because society demands that I do. I really hope I work somewhere one day where I can go to work and see real people and have meetings and share ideas in person. Andrew Keene doesn't really speak to my own experiences because I usually just use Wikipedia to get the general gist of something...I probably wouldn't remember the fine details anyway. I still do all my learning from textbooks and if I want to know the news, I turn on the TV or go to a reliable internet source such as CNN.com. I'm not really even sure that the old media Keene talks about is very reliable either. All news programs are skewed one way or another and most journalists have some agenda of their own as well. I only look at blogs that share opinions and ideas....which I do recognize as just that...or artwork and music. I just don't think the democratized media is as big of a deal as Keene makes it out to be. I'm more concerned with kids sitting in front of video games all day and not going out because they can just I.M. their friends instead. I really believe that human contact is critical to the world's growth.