Here's an observation by Kristine Lowe that should be pasted up in every newsroom:
"If the blogosphere has taught me one thing, it is to become a better listener: I love letting the links of blogs I trust or appreciate take me into unknown territory - introduce me to new and interesting takes, angles, voices..."
Lowe, an Oslo-based blogger, made that point in response to Andrew Keen's book, Cult of the amateur: How today's internet is killing our culture and destroying our economy. He "comes across as a guy who simply does not understand what he's talking about", she writes.
Then she approvingly quotes Adriana Lukas's view: "I think I am getting Keen, he does represent a particular mindset, which existed throughout the ages. He doesn't understand, which is not a crime, but he doesn't want to understand. He is like the rest of the media industry - has a story and he's sticking to it. Everything else washes off of him. His loss. The more interesting is the reason he's getting attention. Somehow people sense that he represents a wider view and so he gets debated... it is like trying to convince the reactionaries out there by proxy..."
Good stuff. But my favourite comment on Keen's polemic is still one I read months ago, by Jeff Jarvis: "Keen wants to be the contrarian's contrarian. But that only makes him a double negative. It makes him a curmudgeon, a conservative trying to hold on to the past, a mastadon growling against the warm wind of change."
