1. How does Keen define Democratized media, and what are his main issues with this trend? use examples from the web in the form of links.
Keen defines democratized media as being a place where everyone can share their opinion and put themselves out there through the internet. He believes that the internet is stealing our culture because of this ability to broadcast ourselves to the world. With democratized media, the dis-intermediate, or the "middle man" according to Keen is lost; the fact-checker is not there regulating what people say. This is true in news because people are now finding out information on blogs or other internet sites (like Wikipedia) that are not factual. The truthfulness in news has deteriorated because of this. He relates this concept to musicians that aren't making money anymore because people can steal the music online. All media can be shared, which takes away from the artist. Keen favors real news and not mainstream media, which focuses on celebrities and gossip rather than actual news. Keen's argument is that there are consequences to Web 2.0; the internet creates less culture, less reliable news, and a chaos of useless information. He believes that this digital obsession is blurring the truth, maybe even making it disappear.
2. Compare and Contrast Keens take on Social Media with Douglas Rushkoff's. Which one speaks to you and your own experiences and why?
Keen and Rushkoff both believe that Social Media is a way for people to put themselves out there and reach a large audience. Keen sees this as a negative thing, whereas Rushkoff sees it as a positive way to express yourself and communicate easily with others. Keen believes that blogs demoralize the truth. Rushkoff believes that social media allows for a free medium to broadcast yourself and connect and communicate with other people. Rushkoff focuses on the positive impacts of social media, while Keen is opposed to it.
I agree more with Rushkoff's view of social media, in that it allows people to express themselves and put their opinions and creativity out there. It allows people from all over the world to connect and communicate instantly. People should know that a comment or blog posting is not real news, and should not be looking at those sites for reliable information. People should know what news sites to trust for news information; not everyone reads and believes what is written in blogs or unreliable websites. The way in which we use social media and the internet is up to us; we should be responsible and knowledgeable about how we are using the internet. Personally, I look at news sites to find out what is going on the world. I use social media to connect with family and friends, even potential employers. The internet can be used for many bad things, but it also can be used as a launching pad for all artists to display their work and put themselves out there to be recognizable. I do think that file sharing and downloading music is wrong, but so many people do it now that artists are becoming more famous because of it. Artists can make money in other ways, through concert ticket sales and merchandise sales.
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