Friday Roundup - quoting the social Web

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

There is a problem with social media. Conclusions should be drawn from the collective, from the aggregate of all social interaction, conversation, commentary, tagging, ratings etc. As the assertion goes, there’s wisdom in them there crowds.

But that’s not how we’re all used to working.

We have evolved, I think you’ll agree, to tune into one person at a time. Listen to one person. Watch one person. If I asked you to tell me what the population of London was thinking on a certain topic, unless that topic was their restricted choice of political expression and the question coincided with a local election, you’d be hard pressed to tell me.

We like our individual news readers, individual film stars, individual celebrities. And our individual journalists. You see, we can trust (most) journalists because they’ve had to subscribe to a code of conduct, a code of ethics. They have standards to maintain in executing their task at hand.

Cnn on Philip Sheldrake

Friday Roundup - quoting the social Web