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Old: Shirky on Walled Gardens

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Paul Keith:
I apologize if this has already been posted:

Source: http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/

Revolutions create a curious inversion of perception. In ordinary times, people who do no more than describe the world around them are seen as pragmatists, while those who imagine fabulous alternative futures are viewed as radicals. The last couple of decades haven’t been ordinary, however. Inside the papers, the pragmatists were the ones simply looking out the window and noticing that the real world increasingly resembled the unthinkable scenario. These people were treated as if they were barking mad. Meanwhile the people spinning visions of popular walled gardens and enthusiastic micropayment adoption, visions unsupported by reality, were regarded not as charlatans but saviors.

When reality is labeled unthinkable, it creates a kind of sickness in an industry. Leadership becomes faith-based, while employees who have the temerity to suggest that what seems to be happening is in fact happening are herded into Innovation Departments, where they can be ignored en bloc. This shunting aside of the realists in favor of the fabulists has different effects on different industries at different times. One of the effects on the newspapers is that many of their most passionate defenders are unable, even now, to plan for a world in which the industry they knew is visibly going away.
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40hz:
Go git em' Clay! :Thmbsup:

I love Shirky. He's one of the few observers I find myself in agreement with better than 50% of the time.

“When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.” - Mark Twain

 ;D

tomos:
I knew I had read that before here:
"Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism."

a good read :up:

Paul Keith:
Thanks. I also had my hunch too but I wasn't sure.

It was just something that got clogged up in my to-do list.

Probably forgot to check it off.

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