Dan Kennedy reports on Podcasting's potential to revolutionize radio as we know it as a "do-it-yourself radio for programmers and listeners alike." He asks: "Will it save us from corporate radio? Or further isolate us inside our own miniature media worlds?" As usual, Kennedy gets to the crux of the issue.
3 comments:
it great to see people innovate, but this does seem like pretty geeky, self-referential stuff... what makes it or breaks it for me is not the technology but the social context.
there may be times when do want to immerse myself in the quirky individuality or obscure musical taste of a lone blogger/podcaster ... but for the most part i am somewhat disappointed when i find myself reduced to being a voyeur to somone's display of style, ego or consumerist signifying.
on the other hand, there seems something prude and self-righteous about trying to judge the social worth of someone's web expressions (or the desire to experience them). we claim that our interest is the splintering of audience and 'worth' of narrowcasting, but i wonder if it isn't a somewhat snobbish or defensive judgment of cultural content itself .... [wow what a bunch of b.s., huh? to some, this is comment is pure masturbation. to others, it means something.]
perhaps we try to erect these walls -- between 'grassroots journalists' and web exhibitionists, between 'true' innovators and technology-of-the-moment tinkerers -- because we are overwhelmed by the infinite pathways of the net.... perhaps we are afraid of losing ourselves in it, losing the chance for social organization and activism in endless distractions and alleyways.
let's face it, tension between the forces of interaction and isolation are endemic to the net itself.... or are they?
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