Per my post about Media General’s reaction to bookofjoe’s habit of pasting their entire articles on his site with links and full attribution I’ve been having an interesting debate with Esbee in the comments. One of the things that the debate highlights for me is the fact that old-media norms and rules are being challenged by new media tools and habits and the old-media owners are struggling with how to deal with it. In particular I think many of us are having a hard time grasping the evolution of what some call the internet and what others call the web. Just when most of us were beginning to get comfortable with how the web had changed information delivery and consumption the web was revamped and now readers have become cut-paste-sharers. This evolution has been stamped by some as "Web 2.0" and it’s literally changing how people use information, but pity the person who tries to explain the "hows", "whats" and "whys" of Web 2.0. That’s why I found the video below by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University so compelling (hat tip to Ed Cone for the link). It’s the best explanation I’ve yet seen for what’s going on in new media, and I think it highlights the challenges that folks at old-media companies are facing.
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