WeMedia, WhereMedia?

It has been an exhausting day - I moderated two panels, one on the evolving media landscape in China/East Asia, the next on media trends in India/SouthAsia. I couldn't take notes because I was moderating but fortunately Jeff Jarvis has blogged the whole day in detail, and there's a long writeup here on the WeMedia blog. Neha and Kamla did fabulously on the South Asia panel. Rachel's Africa panel was brilliant, showing a vibrant and growing African media scene, with a growing community of bloggers. Ory Okolloh via satellite from Kenya charmed the room. People from all over the world joined the live chat and watched the webcast, adding ideas and insights that we wouldn't have benefitted from otherwise.

As the Media Center's Bill Weiss said, "it's not about new media or old media, it's just media." How do we get beyond the arguments about who is more trustworthy than whom, and start working together to create a better, more inclusive, more informed public discourse? And what are the business models to sustain and support these efforts?

The Media Center has issued a call to action: "we propose a worldwide We Media Global Initiative to invest in bottom-up media." They say they're open to suggestions from everybody on how this kind of initiative should work.

Comments

[omih]

As someone who lives and works in Vietnam I often wonder why there seems little mention of this country in such debate.

We've heard all about the issues with China and the government's blocking of certain topics. But what about Vietnam? I recently had to change over from Blogger to Typepad simply because Blogger is largely blocked here. Is that not an issue?

Perhaps, even after all these years, people are incapable of writing anything about this country without it being linked to the US war.

There are signs that this country is opening up. There is more tolerance than ever before and more freedom - economic and otherwise.

For those people who believe in democracy above all else, surely Vietnam makes an incredible case study.

So why so little coverage of this country. Especially when literacy rates and use of the Internet is so high here.

[88]

>>How do we get beyond the arguments about who is more trustworthy than whom

We won't. Professional journalists and the professional class more broadly are guarding their turf. Their elite status is threatened by "new media" -- as soon as journalism became an Ivy League/cocktail party pursuit, it started to ossify. Their only defense at this point is crass credentialism. I trust certain bloggers more than the NY Times, which is not to say blogging/citizen journalism doesn't have its own faults and shortcomings.

[captain]

sir,
I was abhorred at the recent blackingout of Iran's President ahmedjnaids letter to President Bush.The 18 page letter was missing from Newyork times,Washington post ,USA today and all other print media in USA.Even CNN mentioned the letter but notr the contents in detail.Only BBC had it on its website.
I think this is a dangerous blackingout as the american people elect the world's most powerful man.Even Britain used to have a D/notice from home when national interest of UK is involved.i could not see any national interest of USA getting trampled by publishing the 18 page letter.Indian media being the lapdogs when it comes to american sensitivity also followed suit!!!!One has to go to BBC to read the letter in full.
The RIGHT of Iran as memeber of NPT to indulge in nuclear civilian research under IAEA safeguards is also cleverly ommitted.