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July 7, 2006
discarded talk: the revolution will not be televised.
I had to come up with a three minute rant for the Alliance for Community Media workshop on "Evaluating the PEG (Public Access) Model of Community Media." This is the rant I decided not to use:
For years we talked about the coming media revolution. This revolution was going to put the power of mass media in the hands of The People. The People were the individuals and small (non-business) organizations who were ignored, marginalized, and disinfranchised. They were going to use television to allow people to take over the airwaves and make their voices heard. They were going to produce, organize, and take action. Most importantly, this revolution was going to happen because of us.
Well the revolution happened and we weren't there to broker it.
The revolution came in the form of blogs and iMacs and cameraphones and MySpaces and YouTubes and it had the full backing of Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Rupert Murdoch, and the Fortune 500.
The revolution wasn't broadcast quality so we thought the revolution wasn't worth our time. The revolution was agnostic and equally exploitable by all so we said the revolution had no ideology. The revolution reduced all of our paperwork to one click agreements so we said it was too irresponsible. The revolution didn't route through us so we thought the revolution wasn't the real revolution.
The revolution was unorganized and we didn't know how to deal with it.
But now's the time to start dealing with it.
Because although more folks are talking, they still need models for organization and effective action.
Because although anyone can blog, the power laws still apply.
Because although everyones actions are becoming more explicit, no one's holding our institutions more accountable.
Most of all, because the revolution is here and it looks just like any other day.
Posted by yatta at July 7, 2006 3:14 AM