What does exactly “Digital Age” mean? And, what about “Information Society” or “World Wide Web”? When we talk about these terms we know exactly what we are touching on. Exactly? Well, I doubt it. Don´t get me wrong. What I am questioning is not our intelligence, but whether we are able to construct in our minds the main ideas associated with such abstracts concepts.
With Digital Media Revolution we have assumed new words really quickly. Even most young people have grown up using those new words intuitively in their daily lives.
It is frequent to hear words like “web 2.0”, “digital content”, "mashup" or “social media”. Often we listen to increasingly more intense debates in which agents discuss “Internet Governance” or “Copyrights”.
Rather than entering into these discussions, where points of view diverge, I find it interesting to make these concepts clear first. Looking at it from a wide and simple attitude will help us understand which perspectives we find and why they don´t match.
That´s why I find this kind of videos cool.
Social Media is regular people sharing information through a virtual net that connects the whole world. And that is complex to imagine, isn´t it?
Some sort of journalism takes advantage of it, as Gillmor does and explains in his We Media introduction (Foreword). Feedback, freedom of expression and content made by consumers to consumers, all of them walking away from traditional "only one direction" information broadcasting, lead this "participatory journalism".
Technology available for "Information Society", molding together Internet possibilities, gives us brand new technology. Business and companies are paying attention to what their target consumers say on the net to improve their products.
Unlike we used to, we do not look at journalists as gatekeepers anymore. Information is supposed to flow without barriers and comes from very different physical spots and points of view.
All this jumble of new media and concepts may seem chaotic. Changes happen more frequently than ever. And that, for me, for those whose future might depend on communication, is interesting...
