Posted by Helen on: 02.25.2008 /
Chez Pazienza was fired by CNN recently because he wasn’t running his blogging by CNN for their approval.
Chez wrote this in his blog post about being fired:
CNN fired me, and did it without even a thought to the power that I might wield as an average person with a brain, a computer, and an audience. The mainstream media doesn’t believe that new media can embarrass them, hurt them or generally hold them accountable in any way, and they’ve never been more wrong.
I don’t know enough to know whether Chez blogging about being fired will change anything in the mainstream media. However I have seen ways in which the ‘new media’ holds people accountable. Recently I saw a youtube video made by a teenager’s friends as a cop inappropriately lost it with the teenager. Now the cop has been suspended.
One of the things which frustrates me most is when people have power and others have no way to hold them accountable for how they use it. I’m pleased that the ‘new media’ has created some new ways to do that.
Comment by: benjamin ady
1 02/25/08 9:12 AM | Comment Link |When you speak of new media holding people accountable, I immediately remember an incident about 6 years ago, when lovely Megsie and I were still in our first year of marriage. We had this shocking verbal fight, and somehow, unbeknownst to us, the whole thing got recorded by our answering machine–a button on it got bumped or something. When we found out later, and listened to ourselves, we were both apalled at the way we had each been speaking, and apologized more profusely than normal. I think it really helped us change our style a bit.
Comment by: Helen
2 02/25/08 9:34 AM | Comment Link |Benjamin, wow, it’s neat a) how that accident helped you in your marriage and b) no-one else heard it so you could be helped without being embarrassed :)
That was the only fight you ever had, right? :)
Comment by: benjamin ady
3 02/25/08 2:07 PM | Comment Link |You nailed it. And it actually wasn’t a fight per se. It was an argument over whether we’d ever had a fight before or not. =p
Comment by: Pam Hogeweide
4 02/25/08 10:18 PM | Comment Link |The New Media, I like that. I don’t think I’ve paid enough attention to notice that term being used before.
You Tube and camera phones are definitely empowering citizen journalism. And gossipy reporting. I feel bad for the celebrity parents whose teenaged children secretly record saying careless things or drinking too much and then posting it for the world to see. I cringe every time.
But stories that truly deserve community-wide attention are incredibly served when an spontaneously stumbled upon….like when a high-profile critic of homosexuality was spotted in a gay bar chatting up on guys, some of which was caught by someone’s camera phone.
Big Brother? I don’t think so. New Media, yeah, I like that.
(sometimes when I’m cleaning for a client I’ll get spooked and wonder if I’m being secretly filmed or recorded. I’m not dishonest, but it’s unnerving to speculate if I’m being spied on in this technologically driven 21st century!)
Comment by: Julie Marie
5 02/26/08 9:39 PM | Comment Link |I am hoping that the “New Media” will also force candidates for office to define their positions consistently, rather than pandering to the audience du jour. Its not like journalists have to dig back into dusty microfiche files for newspaper clippings from 3 years ago to address inconsistencies anymore.