Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Bloggers of the World Unite!

Rupert Murdoch heralds a 'second great age of discovery' and says that power is 'moving from the old elite to bloggers'.

Internet means end for media barons, says Murdoch

The Guardian

"Far from mourning its passing, he evangelised about a digital future that would put that power in the hands of those already launching a blog every second, sharing photos and music online and downloading television programmes on demand. "A new generation of media consumers has risen demanding content delivered when they want it, how they want it, and very much as they want it," he said. Indicating he had little desire to slow down despite his advancing years, he told the 603-year-old guild that he was looking forward, not back.

"It is difficult, indeed dangerous, to underestimate the huge changes this revolution will bring or the power of developing technologies to build and destroy - not just companies but whole countries."

The owner of Fox News added: "Never has the flow of information and ideas, of hard news and reasoned comment, been more important. The force of our democratic beliefs is a key weapon in the war against religious fanaticism and the terrorism it breeds." "

6 comments:

dan said...

Ariana Huffington (of the Huffington Post) writes in a similar vein:

Now the little guy is the true pit bull of journalism

The blogosphere's ability to include the whole planet in an immediate dialogue makes it the US's most vital news source

Arianna Huffington

Andy said...

The Daily Ablution brilliantly critiques an anti-blogging piece that appeared in today's Independent.

Ablution Prickly, Newspapers Unsullied

(Fans of the Daily Ablution should also check his post on George Galloway)

Andy said...

Here's the Galloway post mentioned in the comment above:

The Bewhiskered One: Cartoons "Worse Than 9/11"

dan said...

Freedom of cyberspeech?

Chatroom insults lead to internet libel victory

By the way, I'm not convinced that there isn't a case to be made for allowing libel cases for remarks made on the internet, (the libellee was being called, amongst other things, a sex offender) but as harry's place points out there may be some nervous scrolling back through the comments sections on certain sites.
(I feel the need to remind everyone that we have a permalink to harry's off this site and it really is well worth checking in regularly.)

Andy said...

This is too funny. Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee was so angry with the reaction to her piece in today's guardian from the Bloggers on comment is free that she had all the critical comments removed.

Andy said...

Just to clarify the last post should read 'was allegedly so angry'. Bizarrely, the Toynbee article with the original critical comments (but without the subsequent comments critizing their removal) can be found hidden behind a Steve Bell cartoon on another page on the Guardian's site.