Welcome to Tapscott’s Copy Desk. If you aren’t a connoisseur of blogs about media issues, you probably aren’t familiar with the predecessor blog known by that slightly odd title. But if you are among the millions of Americans who care a great deal about how the news events, personalities, conflicts, controversies and programs are reported in the old mainstream media and the new Internet-based media, you just might be in for a treat here on Examiner.com with Tapscott’s Copy Desk. Why? Because we just happen to be living in the most exciting and revolutionary times ever for media and for government. The old daily newspapers and the ex cathedra coverage of the evening broadcast news of the Baby Boomer generation’s youth are steadily fading away. The old media are being replaced with an incredible array of Internet-based news media that are opening up amazing possibilities for increased communication, understanding, even of expanding and improving democratic government. Speaking of government, the Internet is also fueling insistent new demands for greater transparency in government’s daily operations and policy-making. With more transparency comes heightened accountability. You know how most politicians and bureaucrats feel about increased accountability! So here we sit right on top of the leading edge of these momentous changes. We’re riding an exceedingly turbulent summer weather front full of flashing lightning, sheets of rain, howling windgusts and bellowing, rolling thunder. You can’t be sure what it all signifies a dangerous tornado or maybe just a good soaking rainstorm – until you experience it up close and personal. So we’re going to be experiencing the collision of old and new media and govenrment together right here, up close and personal, at Tapscott s Copy Desk. I’ve been in traditional newspaper journalism for nearly 30 years as a reporter and editor. I love newspapers, journalists and newsrooms. I know how great a resource the daily newspaper can be. And sometimes it just amazes me how parochial, unprofessional and unfaithful to our own best principles so many of us in journalism can sometimes be. We have a crisis of credibility with many of our present and former readers. Then there is the new media based on the Internet. Here’s what is so exciting about the Internet and news – it gives us all a tool for focusing the wisdom of crowds on the events of the day. That phrase the wisdom of crowds is something you will be reading a lot about here at Tapscott s Copy Desk. There are lots of very smart people reading Examiner.com every day, but no one of them is as smart, experienced, insightful or resourceful as all of us together. That s the wisdom of crowds and the Internet lets us focus all of us on a particular event, problem or opportunity. This is an amazingly powerful tool and it will prove every bit as revolutionizing of daily life as familiar landmark inventions like cars, airplanes, the printing press and the U.S. Constitution. And like those previous marvels, the wisdom of crowds can be used for good and ill. Everything about the news is changing, including the way it is gathered, written, communicated, understood and accepted. So grab your hat and hang on cauz the wind is definitely picking up and I think I just heard some thunder. I’ll be posting here regularly, every day or so, commenting on, analyzing, reporting and questioning everything about the old and new media. AndI hope you will let me know what you think, what you like, what makes you guffaw or curse and what you find ridiculous, outrageous or just plain goofy.
