Timewasters: News in the social media age

Posted at 1:38 PM on October 22, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

What makes this spoof entertaining, is the degree to which elements of it ring true.

It's not going over big in Dallas, apparently. The news is serious business.

Comments (2)

Welcome to the world of Post-postmodernism, aka Pseudo- or Digi- modernism, where "with the triteness and shallowness resulting from the instantaneous, direct, and superficial participation in culture made possible by the internet, mobile phones, interactive television and similar means: “In pseudo-modernism one phones, clicks, presses, surfs, chooses, moves, downloads" ( Alan Kirby)

Posted by Jim Shapiro | October 22, 2010 2:16 PM

In defense of the digital, I find Twitter, especially, to be VERY valuable tools on some breaking news. I recall when India was having its 9/11 -- the attacks in Mumbai -- on Thanksgiving 2009, short dispatches from Twitter were very valuable. On the mainstream traditional media, meanwhile, the longer pieces were about Rick Astley "rickrolling" the Macy's parade.

I would argue that the least superficial medium that day was the one that most people characterize as superficial.

Where it becomes a particular issue -- and that's what this spoof speaks to -- is when traditional media tries to use social network merely as another distribution platform rather than a way to engage an audience and tell a story in a different way.,

Posted by Bob Collins | October 22, 2010 2:34 PM

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