Are we citizen journalists in the same sense as an actual journalist? Are we hired or self-appointed, amateurs or experts, investigators or merely camp followers? Do we practice the same standards of journalistic integrity as we expect from a professional? Or have we merely become part of a noisy rabble indistinguishable from those whom we criticize?
The Internet has been an empowering (some will say 'democratizing') force in the world. More than any medium in human history, the World Wide Web is truly the culmination of Marshall McLuhan’s Global Village. It connects us to commentary, ideas, and newfound friends. It shapes our perceptions and self-conceptions, enables saints and sinners, empowers reformers and terrorists alike. Have we let the Internet go to our heads? As McLuhan foresaw:
“[As] our senses have gone outside us, Big Brother goes inside.”
Does McLuhan refer to the internalization of a dreaded États-Unis Big Brother or the object formation of Big Brother within ourselves?
The Internet has certainly made us more opinionated. It turns bloggers into instant subject matter experts, justified or not. It has transformed us into pundits, self-appointed guardians of the public trust, snoops and voyeurs, saboteurs and trolls. It amplifies narcissism and reduces humility to obsolescence. As the Internet connects the Global Village, it has not necessarily homogenized and unified us. Sometimes it leaves us more fractured than before.
I should talk. Your intrepid Octopus has been as opinionated and predatory as any creature above or below the waves. Nevertheless, with a hat tip to Leslie, I think we owe ourselves an honest conversation.
