The Search for ‘New Media Models’

Here’s an interesting link to a talk given by Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian in the UK.  It offers a glimpse of how he, and the Guardian, see the emerging media environment. The tone that he strikes is interesting insofar as it is not one saturated with the ‘journalism in crisis’ trope, but rather the opportunities that exist as established models are forced to adapt to fast paced and relentless changes.

Rusbridger demonstrates an openness and understanding of media trends that appears well ahead of his counterparts in NA media.  He also fleshes out some of the potentials of a ‘collaborative model’ of journalism between the traditional media and new developments in social media, from WikiLeaks to Twitter. In this regard, he points to how the Guardian now casts itself not just as a newspaper publisher, but also a platform for OPC (other people’s content).

Finally, Rusbridger offer his thoughts on the way ahead not by throwing history and serious thinkers from the past overboard, but by embracing them. He discusses the continued threats of media concentration, highlights the undeniable dependence of most media on some form of subsidy, whether advertising, allocations for public broadcasters, wealthy patrons, etc. by drawing on Walter Lippmann’s 1922 classic, Public Opinion and waxes about the relationship between Raymond William’s observations from 1958 on communication and culture and conditions today.

In other words, media ownership and concentration, how stuff is paid for, and the relation of each to bigger questions about the kind of societies and cultures we currently live in, and those that we might imagine, are all given a serious nod.