The Future of Media in the World!

Watching the EPIC 2014 and Prometheus presentations in class was interesting today and I was surprised to find that they seem eerily accurate. I think the idea of the prosumer is the future of journalism and that civic or citizen journalism will take the future by storm. It seems that the large corporations such as google, microsoft, amazon etc. will be the forums for the new format of news. The fact that citizens can get closer to events and witness them as they happen (even better perhaps than newspeople) will change the face of media along with technology. It does seem difficult to believe that such large conglomerations like google or microsoft would ever merge but according to the general trend...it's not out of the question. I think that with more and more people involved in the media and media corporations growing larger and larger, media could possibly overpower the government when it comes to public opinion. Governments will have to be a lot more careful on how they conduct the administration due to the fact that government secrets will be harder and harder to keep. Also, with this kind of power in the hands of regular citizens, I find it hard to believe that dictatorships and authoritarian governments will continue to exist.

Public Diplomacy in the New Administration?

The issue of Public Diplomacy is a tricky one. I have a hard time letting the government get away with broadcasting straight propaganda to other countries. It all has to do with the unequal flow of information for me. It would be completely different if we were getting all different radio stations full of public diplomacy from other countries (including the developing ones) but unfortunately that's just not the case. I have no problem with putting opinions out there as long as there are opoosing opinions to counter and balance it. For people with little government and few political ideas to grasp, US public diplomacy could be brainwashing and downright intimidating. I think that the new administration can broadcast American ideals and systems but without calling them supreme or seeing them as the end all (or "End of History") if you will. I'll say it again and again, who says American style democracy is the best model? Fact of the matter is that it is still a baby in the scheme of things. It is short sighted to say we won't find a better way....