The news of your world

For a long time we have had mass media that effectively control the flow of news – what they say is news is what we get. They make money from these presentations. They even make up their own news. Making things explode into mainstream media is a big thing – lots of money can be made from that. They have built a culture of attentiveness – they are making us believe we need their news.

Media tell us what we should know, and this process has opened up all sorts of processes: time limits for presentation of “news”, strategies of news, political spin, interest building, lobbying, even twists and turns that are not true. Invading privacy, breaking rules are part  of the media world.

Heavy stuff like detailed analysis, science developments, new understanding etc. is shunned – it has become so superficial.

We have also had WikiLeaks with presentations of “news” we should not have had – it is amazing that there are “news” that should not be available.

The economics of media are playing a big part – what sells  papers, advertising, paid netcontent – where is the money?

Large fields of human activity are scantly touched upon: science, controversial themes of society or politics, general open debate – these things do not add to media’s streams of income.

Analysis and opinion are smartly tailored to whatever masters the media have – do not trust any of it – try to see for yourself, be a sceptic, be knowledgeable.

Technology have changed it all – you can now easily present what you have to the world, you can engage others in what is happening, you can have independent opinion, fresh views, unbiased thinking – you can in principle seek the truth.

So we are entering a new age where control is slipping from the big moneymaking manipulating few – a new situation is arising. The media empires are falling.

But it is a vulnerable system – it hangs on the technology being open and available. Censorship has been seen – blockage has been a practice already.

But the basic question about news is what is there to be had – what is news to you – and now is the time to start thinking about the kind of news you need or want, what knowledge is of use to you, on a daily basis and long term.

Most of what is presented today is just noise or trivial – nobody needs to know.

So it is about the use you can make of knowledge – for business, for entertainment, for leisure, for experience, for innovation, for a good life, etc… Most of it you do not need now – a time lapse is all right.

It is all very subjective – we are all singular people – what affects us and what does not is a matter of personal priorities, background, situation. A new situation is dawning – the choice of news is yours.

And should you pay to know: no. Should you pay for analysis and comment: maybe. Public interest media must come forward with open clean exchanges full of logic and ethics and sense – we should even consider public funding of such media.

Activists, groups with special interests may come forward like never before, giving new life to many debates.

And participation in the knowledge business is increasing, news is not so interesting really – things happening at the other side of the world can often wait. Local information is more important – much of which can be found in databases. People are sharing what they know, they are commenting and adding to others, they are different and it is cheap or free too. This could be great!  And true – whatever that may be.

And maybe the world wil be a better place too when you can pull in your own news instead of so called news being pushed at you all the time.

The technology is new too – it is in its infancy  - great new things will come making access even easier: refined search,  aggregation, comments, links and leads, interconnectivity, databases – even your own private and personalised, better machines ever easier to use, better software ….

Media as we know them will have trouble –  we will not. A new industry is growing around us. Crowdbased media are going – individuals with strong subjectivity are entering.

You make tour own world from what you know – what you want to know you can find, the rest is of no interest.

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