Why we fight

Body of War Trailer - powerful stuff

Remembrance Sunday

Hugely significant day today, Remembrance Sunday, commemorating the role of those who fell during the two wars, that is World War One and Two.

It's a sombre national event, which will be marked in time honoured fashion: pomp, decorum and circumstance.

Behind the primary agenda, another seems to be quietly gaining ground, reported in the national press and has perhaps greater currency in the wake of the launch last week of a lobbying group.

" Ex Military Chiefs fight and win their publicity force - a lesson in PR and using the Net" how former senior defence figures have this week launched the UKNDA to bring attention to UK's defence budget in maintaining a "proper funded force".

There will be a great deal of sensitivty not to nudge the news agenda away from that for which it was intended; Remembrance.

One of the most marked pieces of reportage comes from a national newspaper claiming in present campaigns 88 soldiers deaths can be attributed to equipment failure.

It'll be interesting, as I noted in my first post, how in light of the UKNDA's presence, the spotlight "lighthouses" from remembrance of fallen men and women to those in the field.

On their site they draw attention to support for Northern Rock, a report originally from the Economist:

"State support for Northern Rock already exceeds Britain's transport budget and could soon surpass the £32 billion allocated to defence a particular embarrassment for a government accused of under-equipping its soldiers in combat zones."

Two minute silence at 11.0'clock a.m

Integrated Multimedia - follow on

Been invited to talk at the highky regarded Cultural Exchanges 07 in Leicester next year and thought I'd pursue this line of integrated multimedia.

Should complete a couple of films by then.

features Dan Gillmor
Technorati's David Sifry
New York Times' Naka Nathaniel
Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz. . and many more

For 600 px wide view click here

the new journalists

A month after graduating from his Masters course at the University of Westminster, Tamer - a blogger, web designer, videojournalist, doc maker, radio hack and all round media savvy reporter gets into the heart of the matter - the front line in Gaza - as the BBC's Gaza Correspondent.

If you're a student going through journalism school anything is possible. BUT. . . as Tamer explains in a video post before he left be focused and put in the work.

Something that applies to us all

Marvelous stuff

What is multimedia journalism - who **** cares?

It's a dogged question that I'm looking at with a videojournalism package next week.

I love the web for this type of pre-shoot thinking.

Here's what I have planned and please do chip in - as they say in Blighty.

I have a shoot from Al Jazeera with Riz Khan, which I hope to follow up with the Telegraph and then the Croydon Advertiser.

Riz is a multimedia operator and you'll see an array of DV cam he uses for his shoots. The trick is in the lighting

The Telegraph frankly need no introduction in this area.

Whilst the Croydon Advertiser has gained notoriety for its soundslide shows.

All of these bring different elements as the sum of all parts to the multimedia landscape and it will be interesting to hear what the parties have to say in a considered package rather than one which has the obligatory 2 minute TV time span.

There's some archive from 95 with interviews from the Guardian, Sunday Times and Telegraph about their thoughts on the matter which I'll drop in.

So what's the point in this?
I suggested the package to the Press Gazette in the face of a market that has come a long way in the last year and thus deserves a look in.

I also stumbled upon this site in my referral matrix logs - a Channel 4 Commissioner Matte Locke giving a robust speech to independent TV producers to pitch to him pieces that are not "Buckaroo" packages.

Buckaroo is that game played where the users try and place a saddle etc on a horse which buckaroos when the weight's too much.

If anything TV has shown itself up by it's lack of multimedia expressionism

What's multimedia got to do with it
So what does multimedia bring to the journalism table?

Six years ago in this article for one of the UK's leading architecture and design magazine's Blue Print, a colleague and I produced an interactive documentary.

It garnered ok attention, making its way to the finals of Channel 4's Unleash the Talent comp.

It's strength was that it was circular, no navigation arm, so required users play with it.

I hadn't quite dabbled in as much game theory then as I have now, so it was a wonderful eureka moment.

And there have been more. The Successor Generation - a documentary, radio piece, online site of a story I have kept in touch with over 13 years examines South Africa's young black professionals.

Who Cares
Multimedia yes, but frankly who cares. Who cares?

It's a language, a discourse and if you can speak it but no one can engage what's the point?

Multimedia in terms of a visual vernacular is a universal language, just like film.

There are various descriptions in the industry at what constitutes multimedia, from blogs to ful blown film sites like this Darfur Now, which shame, could and should have been made by any number of broadcasters

For instance there are sites that are multimedia driven but not multimedia in the singularities they offer.

On the other hand there are multimedia practitioners offering multi user experience, which claim the senses.

You only need to look at Apple 's Trailer site for new film sites in this catergory. Xmen is now a classic in the ranks of multimedia.

Does it matter really? Well, yes and no.

The bottom line is about delivering richer experiences for the end users isn't it, and one that gives them greater control?

It's about finding a more expansive, sometimes simpler way of telling a story, that may have a beginning but no end.

And what's apparent about that strand of multimedia stories is their timelessness.

Newsday's Cost of War is a brilliant example of a multimedia package that I came across from the Batten Awards 2 years ago and it has't left me.

It's also about the innovation and economics of journalism using available technology, offering something uniquely wonderful, pushing new paradigms and widening consumer choice.

Newspaper doing TV is one

Adrian Holavaty's Chicago Crime.org is another.

And the economics must be such that new producers feel confident they're prolonging the shelf life of their assets and learning, as well as engaging more with a wider audience.

News never goes away.

The Tsunami, Hurrican Katrina, the Second World War - all have their legacies and ongoing actulaities.

Multimedia helps us construct and preserve manifold examples of news to watch now and then, many years ahead - and even scale them upwards.

What about the professionals
And what of the professionals?

if you were a photographer whose only pics used to grace the front page of the newspaper, but now you can create sound slide shows from your portfolio of unused but key pics, how satisfying that must be for the photojo and the consumers.

I suppose making more money would be as well.

This report I'm making isn't an empirical report, though it would merit one at some point.

Given my interests as part of my Phd and in lecturing, as well as in journalism, it would incorporate scenario building and trend extrapolation to think through where we could go with this.

Ultimately the platform that may emerge the victor will have a lot in common with cable broadband as opposed to Satellite - which doesn't offer a true multimedia interactive experience.

The experience is a slight of hand - a loop. There is no return pathway. You crash in at any point. The BBC's interactive news (press the red button) is something like that.

So Multimedia - we've only just started, and it's highly likely that it will undergo more metamorphosis as we just about grapple with waht we can do now.

Watch this watch this Watch this

Awesome, amazing, mindblowing, incredible..... you will run out of superlatives and watch it again and again and again.

For one of he nicest and most talented team (Rob of the Ronin) and Chris.

Watch this after effects and final cut opening titles for the OFFF

Feedback BBC Radio 4 - reflection

BBC Radio 4's feedback programme features BBC Radio Leicester, which was the first BBC local radio station in the country - the date 8 Nov 1967.

Talking is station manager Owen Bentley and my mentor, Vijay Sharma, one of the first Asian presenters way back when and a senior executive and pioneering force within the BBC Asian Network.

Its report wasn't anywhere near long enough.

If you're a radio ham, BBC Leicester is worth studying. It is also largely responsible for some key talent within network BBC e.g. Julian Worriker, Iain Carter - Radio Five Live, and Egypt-Midd. east Coorespndent Ian Pannel.

Vijay Sharma was not only responsible for Asian programming but launched some of the first Afro-Caribbean output.

I joined the sation in my second year of university (1986) eager to see how radio worked, than anything else.

I was a Maths and Chemistry undergrad, fascinated by all things electronic.

But it didn't take me long after joining to think I'd love to be on air.

Memories
One of my most cherished memories, was a report I made around a neighbouring area called GROBY.

Now humour me ? How would you pronounce GROBY?

Well it's actually pronouned GROO-BEE.

And if there's one thing local radio listeners hate and will probably lead to an audience with an irate station manager that's mis-pronouncing local area names.

Trouble is I was fairly new, was half way home on a late night 10.00 pm shift, with classes the next day, when I recalled what I had done.

Whatever happens next I thougt, tired and weary from a long shift, I need to go back and correct this.

Two problems. First I did not have any keys to the station, so at 10.30 called on one of the programme managers who kindly but quietly fuming drove 4 miles to the station to let me in.

Second problem, I didn't know how to take the report off from a cart - a version of the 8 track cartridge - redo it and get it back on cart again.


Finally Urgh
I perservered, trying and trying and trying some more.

Eventually 5.30 in the morning I'd cracked it and the report was back in the in-tray of the morning presenter with the offending word corrected.

I could now go home.

As I passed a Macdonalds opening up for breakfast, a group of women coming back from a late night club heckled.

"Wot you just finished your shift at Macdonalds. Hope you swept the floor properly, it's filthy".

"Yeah. yeah, yeah!", I remember replying and faded into the unfurling dusk, with lectures barely four hours away - not enough to get any sleep.

That was my first on air report - in 1987 - a report I kept, which I have it somewhere, somewhere.. .

I-Phone in action

The I-phone has hit British shores.

Here's a 40 second clip I shot of Robb Montgomery from Visual Editors during a gig we did in Cairo. Soon after off camera he was practically mobbed.

What Robb is very enthusiastic about is the Iphone as the next generation journalists tool.

He road tested the device to show its many options e.g. Google map, GPS, Video et al

Being a simpleton, I loved that he could take my pic and it manifested full screen tagged to called ID.

Can't tell you the number of times I have been flummoxed by who's on the end of my phone - even when their name comes up.

Now can it make coffee I asked

Deconstructing Cairo shoot

Visual Editor's founder Robb Montgomery shot the making of a VJ package in Cairo. On viewmagazine.tv we've started to post some of the clips.

Letter from South Africa

"I don't want affirmative action to continue", says one of South Africa's talented youth, in this doc by Viewmagazine's David

It's always going to be incendiary reporting South Africa with race centre stage, particularly in the context of employment and affirmative action .

The BBC's report this morning had some choice moments, taking a town to serve as a microcosm of South Africa and seeking to find out what each side, black and white, felt about the impact of this policy.

One woman suggested with indignity and pejudicial slant "We have helped them" or thereabouts, and these emerging blacks are now buying swanky cars, while another suggested "affirmative action hasn't gone far enough", and one of the last clips that these blacks are being given jobs with little qualifications.

On the Successor Generation, a doc, radio, net piece, first made for BBC Radio such views were not uncommon, as were those who advocated that they would have to be a time limit on affirmitive action.

We don't want it going on like it does in the states, says an interview. See the doc here.

360 Degree Reporting
My bone, was not the report but the manner in which we so try to simplify complex debates, not a problem in itself, but that they should be given a forum to allow for greater expression.

Yes you could argue where does that stop then?

Shall all reports have a circular 360 degree dimension?

Perhaps, as much as possible to allow listeners a chance to engage and expand on the debate to get a wider understanding.

The BBC's report sets an agenda because it's the BBC, but there's nothing to stop the corporation from linking to say SABC radio who might debate this issue in greater detail, in the manner of "Any Answers".

Or providing its own forum to Q and A.

Yes, yes, yes blogs is one avenue, but with the amount of broadcast web technology and propensity for peopple to want to engage, at the very least, deploy skype as a conference set up for us to q the reporter.

The days of linking radio or podcasts in the same way we do text will one day, one day, be upon us, when it allows for a much better rigorous understanding of issues which sometimes eschew such deconstructions.

The BBC's mistake over 'The Trouble with Black Men" is an example of this. The programme may have been provocative, not giving anyone the forum to debate your findings does not reach the evolving and sandshifting threshold of future journalism

Ex Military Chiefs fight and win their publicity force - a lesson in PR and using the Net

Your country needs you says new tri-forces campaign group UKNDA.org using images to target men and women

A month ago, I was forwarded a letter from an Intelligence Analyst, the contents of which spelt out deep concerns within the UK's defence budget in maintaining a "proper funded force".

The letter ( below) highlighted how unusually a triumveriate of senior former defence figures and an ex foreign minster had come together to raise their concerns about over stretching and underfunding in the Forces.

They are General Lord Guthrie, Marshal of the RAF Lord Craig and Admiral Lord Boyce as well as ex-foreign secretary Lord Owen.

I have posted an extract. The rest was written as a private communique so I'm observing partial rules of Chatham House - which I have been a member of for about 14 years.

What's instructive and informative about this letter is how in the space of a month it's developed into a full headsteam campaign, with the BBC's online site prominently displaying a full page story page and its flagship radio news and current affairs programme, The Today Programme, giving generous time to an interview with Lord Guthrie at 7.40 am.



How did it get there?
I can only speculate, but there are key indices.

They are a powerful assembled lobby group, though concerns about budget-cuts in the Forces are no where near new.

I recall in 1996 being one of the few journalists in the UK invited into Command Control in Northolt as a showcase of the UK's new rapid deployment force.

It was there also the then Defence Secretary Michael Portillo announced stringent cuts as part of a defence review.

News execs are legendary for steering clear of "talking heads" senior military personnel 'bemoaning" the demise of their forces.

So being a non partisan group, that would have helped.

However, there's also been a number of news reports highlighting casualties of UK forces in their major twin campaigns.

The News Machine
News managers would not have overlooked the currency of the group's message in the wake of a damning Oxford Coroner's criticsm of the government for the unlawful killing of a 19 year old Fusilier.

Then the news revealed on the front page of the guardian that the government's minster of defence equipment and support Lord Drayson had quit his job to race cars in the US.

On air all Lord Guthrie would say is that he thought Lord Grayson was "frustrated".

And perhaps somewhat surprising for what could be termed traditionalists a rather snazzy web site ( Lord Guthrie doesn't mention it though) yoked to the stirring passions of that most patriotic of British songs festooning the Last Night of the Proms, Land of Hope and Glory.

Though the aformentioned were not strongly connected to the lobby group, it illustrates how within the media turn of events, seemingly unconnected, can act as a catalyst and be threaded together to create the maths formula that often governs news reportage.

The story has legs now. Expect to see it across all major channels and hold its own, with the prospect of a slow crumpling train hurtling towards the Ministry of Defence.

A month and some to mount a news worthy profile is a considerable feat.


Letter
UK NATIONAL DEFENCE ASSOCIATION

President: Winston S Churchill
Patrons: Admiral Lord Boyce GCB,
Marshal of the RAF Lord Craig GCB,
General Lord Guthrie GCB, Rt. Hon Lord Owen CH


Dear xxxx

It occurs to me that this might be something to which you may care to lend your support!

Some three months ago I was approached by Cdr. John Muxworthy RN (rt'd) who, together with a group of retired officers – all deeply concerned about the serious underfunding of Defence – formed the UK National Defence Association, in the hope of bringing pressure to bear to remedy what, I am sure you will agree, has become a critical situation for our Armed Forces. They asked if I would agree to be their President. Since this is a matter about which I feel passionately, I agreed without hesitation.

The sole aim of the UKNDA -- Tri-Service, All-Party -- is to create a public head of steam for a proper funding of Defence. . .

In an excellent Newsnight programme on 6 Sept., Gen. Sir Jack Deverell twice made the point that there was "very little pressure from the public" for increased funding for the Armed Forces. That is precisely what the UKNDA hopes to remedy by becoming a mass-membership organization, tapping a large slice of the 15M of our fellow-citizens who are serving, or who have served, in H.M. Forces, or have family or friends who have done so.. . . .

. . . . . . .

Yours ever,  
Winston

Winston S. Churchill

Young people get their news from the web - USA Today reports

Julia Ceaser presents BBC Business on a screen with redundant screen estate

That Young people turn to the web for news, reported byUSA Today should come as no suprise, though you know there will be a few execs tututing.

Trend extrapolate those findings and the future looks er, not very bright.

More staggering is that knowing this you'd think TV execs would think about cross linking as an idea.

Simple, above, Julia Ceaser ( yes that's her real name and she's heard all the jokes) presents BBC Business.

Julia is an old colleague from the Channel One TV - Videojournalism revolution days of 94.

The screen she's presenting within is neat, with wide TV estate - doing, er, nothing.

Similarly Fiona Bruce, BBC TV would have presented a news programme, in which many of the items would warant further attention and could possibly expand its coverage online.

So what would it take for execs to have a link below the screen telling you where you can pick the news item from?

Yes it's a no brainer, but it's a cross link from one media to another.

Likewise online for those appointment TV people tell em what they could be missing at the scheduled 10.00 pm

Paradigm shift was the post before this, talking about current Masters student. Paradigm shift is what one suspects TV land could do with.

And by the way I went across all the channels - all hybrids of one another. . . no wonder young people get their news from the web

New Journalism, New thinking

Famous illusion - here for some more to test your point of view with friends

I very rarely post about the Masters module I run; it's just seems a bit off limits though of course I don't in the least mind students posting.

Some even blog live.

Today however we looked at the mindset of the journalist, or future journalists in first contact for online journalism

It allowed some interaction with paradigms and the "aha" syndrome.

One of the biggest threats facing us isn't the deludge of new applications and hardware tools on the market; all of which I'd play around with if I had the chance, or even the trend-to-dismiss web 2.0, but the mindset that predetermines how we percieve what we do.

- - - Dyson's thoughts here
- - -

If big old crinky institutions have their way, the emperors clothes would still be the status quo - producers swearing that their tried and tested model works.

All the signs though are that matters will continue to evolve, so whilst we may have to learn one bit of software or another, that's not really the point for me.

Those determined or bloody minded enough could sooner learn Final Cut by or Flash via books.

I know I first did.

No, one of the issues bedevilling us is about our propensity to accept change, to be sure about the uncertainty ahead that there is no certainty, that today's blog may be tomorrow's "Pass it on" and that we should not fear the unknown.

We're at sea
We've been sailing a ship as deck hands where the seas have been fairly calm, occasionally rocky but nothing we couldn't handle and now all hell's broken loose.

It's rough, really rough. We're outside our comfort zone and it's scaring the bejeez out of us.

Question is how adaptive or creative are you at finding solutions?

Rather reminds me of the APRANET story, of the men with high foreheads submitting their original idea to the military brass, for a pre-internet system.

"This Sirs will do the job in command and control capable of relaying a message in the theatre of a nuclear first strike war".

The brass saw them off; bring back something else, was the riposte.

"We'll give you more, so much more that you'll not know what to do with it", seems to have been the attitude.

The Net is born.

Who do you see?
The picture of the old woman - young lady is a favourite as it tests our capacity to see another person's point of view when it's not at first plainly evident there is one.

It further allows for the sudden sharp intake of breath and exclamation: "Aha", when the alternative image appears.

As a Chem-Maths student I used to love that feeling producing an organic compound which would show a high yield with minimum impurities when passed through a Gas Chromotograph.

The roots of journalism and storytelling will prevail, our ability to inform and entertain using variant models, which we haven't even fathomed must sit at the core of what we do.

That's progress - something big media has cosily shared within itself, parrying, where it can, any disruptive force.

It's no surprise that within computing science and technology, young brains have played a major contribution to the force of the web.

We should equally, sans the politics, not be surprised to see the present crop of tomorrow's journalist pushing this media completely of the scale - our percieved scale.

Change is good.

war video journalist

Been watching an old edition of Overthere and felt the need to post from seeing a number of videojournalists around me holding their camera in that, "hello mum I'm here way".

If you have a dvcam, first thing tear the strap off that allows you to "palm" the device.

Secondly let your body become the human tripod, holding the camera double handed away from you.

That way you also cushion the movements.

It enable youto canter with little shakes

VideoJournalism - break some eggs

In 1979 I saw my first conflict. I was caught in the middle of small arms fire with some of my college cadet colleagues

This was Ghana.

In 1992, this time armed with a sony and hi 8 I was in the townships of South Africa evading conflict between Inkatha and ANC supporters.

Since then I have had further scuffles.

One things certain, as my VJ stripes got dirtier and dirtier, I've come to realise vjism is not a glampuss job.

If you want to practice Videojournalism on foreign, even domestic assignments, be prepared to get into the trenches.

At its heart we can cover stories of any nature, but Vjs immediacy and gonzoism ( that doesn't translate as unprofessionalism) offers a raw, up close and personal way of capturing stories.

No glamour, no airs and graces, but the photojournalist of old and new, jeans, trainers an attitude and armed with a cine capturing device.

"Get the shot, get the shot".

Today I said probably my last byes to a group I have known for a year.

They were students when we met up and now they are that no more.

I had a frank, but neccessary discussion with them, that I would not normally have.

You own this space. You make your own rules. What you know surpasses what many are unaware of, in radio, broadcast, magazine, newspapers, online, CSS, Mashups.

Some have found jobs, others are in the process, but I have no doubt all of them will find their calling.

It really is an exciting time to do journalism, to really break some eggs

Bootcamp !!@4 Videoojournalism

It's videojournalism boot camp, but heavens knows what I'm saying. I'm normally quite pleasent. Really!

Aid agencies acting as reporters - should we be concerned?

Aha did that get your attention ?

Then it worked.

This is what a full page spread from the Guardian asked yesterday.

You see it's a no brainer, but the danglingdated question provides a certain oomph for the article.

There's journalism at work for you, words that build an emotive picture.

I first started working with Aid agencies e.g. Medecins Sans Frontieres in 1997 and have come into contact with all manner of agencies attempting to report their findings, whether that's their annual report or what's on the ground.

In the 80s Greenpeace raised the game, becoming frontline campaigner and reporter.

Disrupt the path of the whale hunters, then report/film them for water hosing you.

The BBC learned to its cost on one occasion when film from an agency was said not to be compus, questioning the broadcaster's journalism integrity.

The BBC would then drop the idea of Video News Releases (VNR) entirely.

But oh how matters have changed in the game.

The new media reporters
My last forays into MSF exchanging ideas on news production and editing was about two years ago in Belgium at their International office.

A couple of their staffers were so talented I felt that they would have given any reporter a run for their money in videojournalism and radio reportage/podcasts.

And I don't mind that they're not being objective in their reports because we know first hand who they are and what they stand for.

That's the ecosystem of citizen journalism. If you're transparent in your delivery, what Peter Barron, newsnight editor calls "xtreme transparency then we can make up our own minds over trust levels.

And come on how many times have you found even "real" journalists fall foul of this?

One of the best conflict films I have seen in recent months about war and its effects e.g. rehabilitation, came from one of the agencies, with Claudio Von Planta shooting and directing.

I was asked to provide the voiceover for a couple of reformed militia.

Should we be concerned with aid agencies reporting?

That's a mute point.

Should we be looking to learn from example and report what aid agencies are adept at doing, such as returning to hazard zones when the mainstream media has left ?

Provide a sympathetic tone and visual narrative, eschewing parachute journalism.

Trying to bring show some of the ills of these awful places we've become innured to.

Yes, yes, yes.

In fact this header: Aid agencies show mainstream media how to report, might equally have attracted your attention.

Here for an example of MSF's reportage

p.s Incidentally less we forget, there's a wide body of foreign correspondents who started off their careers working for aid agencies

Having a bad day - sometimes things just fall apart

At some stage things just fall apart... Full experience here

From one of the best emerging motion graphic designers in the world - and that ladies and gentlemen is me being deadly serious.

When you're around people like Robb, you can't help but try and raise your game, even if you've not the first idea what you're doing

BBC Radio 4 - Can newspaper survive?

Listening live to a series of excellent analysis of the media on line on the BBC - Can Newspapers Survive? by Industry heavyweight Kim Fletcher

Guardian Editor, Alan Rusbridger says he's excited by change, adding before hand the precariousness of the industry and how things are changing.

Online advertising does not generate enough compared to newspapers, but overtime this will change, but will this go to newspapers in their current guise, was a question raised.

Andrew Gowers formely editor the FT spoke about mistmatch in online advertising and in the newspaper, despite the fact that online was growing fast.

David Montgomery, formerly Mirror exec is building a newspaper in Europe - Newspaper will be run by those from the online world he says.

Different technologies to read newspapers will appear; Alan Rusbridger talking about if someone creates the ipod to read newspapers, while another interviewer says the mobile phone is the next battle ground.

But adds another pundit Alan print will always be here.

Rupert Murdoch, Kim says, has just invested 650m in new printing plants. A shrewed operator with knowledge of the internet, so this investment is saying something.

Kim concludes that it's about journalism, so if there's a newspaper or not, it's the journalism that matters.

The credits said broadcast produced by City Productions. Is that Adrian Monck's at City Uni?

I'm about to find out.

Listen to the next programme tomorrow if you work in the media or not.

p.s There's the Society of Newspapers Editor's conference going on. Be interesting to see what emerges from them given the frenetic nature of this debate and in light of the NUJ exec saying web 2.0 is rubbish.

Read Shane and the Telegraph's exchange

Cult of the Amateur

Andrew Keen's book is doing the rounds and getting new wind after the raft of first wave interviews.

A neccessary addition to the counterpoint of web hubris? Or has he got it all wrong? You decide.


This is what he says on his site:

"My debate with Chris Anderson author of the Long Tail was both published and broadcast in this morning's San Francisco Chronicle.

I have the highest respect for Chris. I think he's done a brilliant job recalibrating Wired's message and his Long Tail is an extremely smart and elegant argument that is revitalizing mainstream media's interest in technology.

The only problem is that he's wrong. He's wrong that we are on the verge of a cultural renaisssance. He's wrong that the digital revolution will provide people with more viable avenues to become professional writers, musicians and film-makers. Most importantly, he's wrong that amateurism benefits mankind.

As I will show in my Cult of the Amateur, we are teetering on the edge of catastrophe. Blogs, wikis and social networking are, indeed, assaulting our economy, our culture and our values. Web 2.0 is pushing us back into the Dark Ages".