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Revolution Panel
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About the "Media
Revolution"
At Digital Be-In 12, and on the Media
Revolution website that went forward, we explored how the Internet
and digital media can actually deliver the tremendous communications,
news gathering and reporting, and educational breakthroughs that inspired
us (the creators of new media tools and systems) from early on. We knew
that to do this, we had to "think outside the box" and move
beyond the constraints of our obsolete systems. It was about designing
non-commercial news and product information delivery, many-to-many publishing,
on-demand training and education, and other advanced applications. Digital
Be-In 12 featured speakers and exhibits addressing these issues.
The Internet promised to make publishers of us all, and allow us to
communicate on a level the world has never seen. While email and Web-based
news delivery has offered tremendous new benefits, we have also seen
the Internet become a Tower of Babble, navigable only by search engines
- with unrealistic expectations and uses promoted by now-transparent
dot-com hype. At the same time, the world's media companies have been
merging into mega-monopolies. In the United States, most media is now
owned by six corporations. On a worldwide scale, a handful of publishing
groups control 85 percent of print, television, radio, and related Web-based
media.
At Digital Be-In 12, we asked, "What can we do to change this
picture?" New media technologies promise profound changes in how
global citizens obtain news and feature programming, as well as how
we communicate among ourselves and contribute to the emerging decentralized,
many-to-many media system. By becoming aware of how mass media is controlled
and biased by a few corporations; by choosing alternative media sources;
and by taking action to publish news and original content with digital
production tools, the Internet and independent media vehicles - the
public can create a true revolution in the control and presentation
of media.
1) Awareness: understanding how mass media news and television programming
is controlled and subject to biases stemming from centralized corporate
ownership and political forces.
2) Alternatives: choosing among the growing number of alternative media
experiences as a counterbalance to pervasive, commercially-biased media.
3) Action: using the tools of change and evolution - email, mailing
lists, Web-based publishing, and independent media organizations - developing
intelligent "push and pull" media usage versus passive media
consumption.
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