Mon, 12/17

I’m quickly growing tired of all of the skepticism toward new media’s perceived shortcomings and the defense of old media “integrity.” Let’s get some things straight, primarily the difference between old and new.

First up? Old media. That’s easy. Old media refers to the antiquated practices of print publishing and analog broadcasting. That’s it, done, go home. What’s harder to understand is that revered journalism, classic programming, and heavily researched content may have been birthed by old media techniques, but these content types can’t be confined to their original platforms. Sure, those items were heavily informed by old media culture and practices, but they aren’t the immutable, nontransferable property of the vanguard institution that was “traditional media.” (Neither are the old media hiring requirements, journalistic pedigrees, or news bureau ways of thinking — these things are naturally characteristic of old media, but they do not define it.)

New media describes the transmission of information content, digitally. Really, that’s all it is. Oh sure this land of new media is populated by seeming non-knowers like blogs, twitters, video diaries, MySpace profiles, and cowardly anonymous commenters, but it is also home to digital versions of favorite old media publications, news reporting of “old media caliber,” and yes, even good fiction and video programming. And for those who think the original bastion of new media, the blog, can’t be synonymous with hallmark content, the bloggers of the web correctly remind you: “A blog, after all, is just a content management system.”

So to sum it up again for those hardheaded journalism cynics, old means analog and new means digital. Good content is platform independent. There is absolutely no reason why new media can’t produce brilliant journalism, show-stopping reporting, and original entertainment content in a million new formats with the highest merits. Sure each media era has its own culture and particularities, but defining the actual information content as a part of the “old media” or “new media” genre denies our emerging reality. Pretty soon, the most illuminated content we know will have originated in digital form anyways. And on that same day, old media printing presses will be shelved, analog antennas will finally be laid to rest, and Gutenberg will call us names for sinners from the grave.

[This is in response to the flurry of news, defense, hope, and skepticism for Gawker’s new editorial trajectory.]