Not a coincidence
Andrew Keen, who was featured in our Wednesday post, did a Q&A with Financial Times readers today. In a response that will have pleased the FT greatly, he rowed back from the notion that the amateur "monkeys" who write blogs are Visigoths come to sack the Rome of "professional media". Here's the softball question and Keen's arrogant response.
"You're right, there is a lot of rubbish online; but what about the importance of freedom of speech and expression? Isn't it liberating that many more people now have the opportunity to explore their creative side and voice their opinions, even if the rest of the world may think the outcome is nonsense." Polly, London
Andrew Keen: "I don't have a problem with amateurs expressing themselves online as long as they remain consumers of professional media content. The problem, however, is that the rise of a user-generated-content media is intimately bound up with the structural crisis of much of contemporary mainstream media institutions. This isn't a coincidence."
After reading the questions and answers, one thing is clear: Andrew Keen is no Neil Postman. There is very little there there.
Comments
Mick Fealty has a good take on Keen at CIF. Must say that he is much more evenhanded than you are!
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mick_fealty/2007/06/woodworm_or_pathfinders.html
Posted by: phil anderson | June 7, 2007 9:46 PM
The problem, however, is that the rise of a user-generated-content media is intimately bound up with the structural crisis of much of contemporary mainstream media institutions.
Allow me to translate:
"Gentlemen, we've got to protect our phony-baloney jobs!"
Posted by: Angie Schultz | June 8, 2007 7:14 AM