Digital Media

Historically, a robust media ecosystem in Minneapolis-St. Paul has supported residents’ demand for large and diverse quantities of information on both political and quality-of-life issues. Today, the demand for quality journalism in the Twin Cities remains high, but many local media outlets struggle to deliver it sustainably. The digital age has presented significant challenges to a media landscape centered around a print format; however it also presents new opportunities.

This is a weekly segment on MPI’s blog to document the published activities of our fellows, affiliates, collaborators, et al. over the past week.

Mobile journalism’s rapid climb in popularity has been front and center over the past month, with an unrelenting stream of iPad apps, iPhone apps and other new digital endeavors being sent out into the world by traditionally print news outlets. From Marie Claire to Rupert Murdoch, everyone and their brother seems to be getting on the mobile bandwagon.

When I said that I was busy putting a syllabus together for a course on "Print Culture" at CUNY's College of Staten Island this fall, Alexis Madrigal asked me if I'd be willing to share the syllabus development process with the larger online community. I was more than happy to oblige -- and also a little bit scared.

“The advent of the digital world has revolutionized how the public obtains its information.” How many times have you read some variation of this statement? General consensus assumes this observation to be fact. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the battle over equal access to and diversity of information graces mainstream headlines quite frequently—from the Wall Street Journal’s recent coverage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act exemptionsto a San Francisco Chronicle article entitled “Demolition of Berkeley branch libraries fought.” And, in the influx of information-related news, an unassuming institution is emerging as a key driver in the conversation: the library.

How can the Internet foster collective intelligence if it is simultaneously rewiring our brains to make us less intelligent? In their recent efforts to try to make sense of the cultural and political implications of today’s dramatically reconfigured media ecosystem, Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus and Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows set forth two provocative arguments that stand somewhat in opposition to one another.  Both authors have explored this terrain before—Shirky with Here Comes Everybody, his account of the various ways in which the networking power of the Internet is facilitating new modes of production and social organization; and Carr with The Big Switch, his analysis of the evolving public utility model that is increasingly characterizing access to computing power.  The two authors have engaged each other in an online debate on the Encyclopedia Britannica’s blog over whether the overall cultural effects of the Internet are positive or negative—a step forward or back for human intelligence—so it seems appropriate to consider their latest works together.

The District of Columbia, containing a wealth of intellectual capital, national political institutions, and expansive support for innovative industries is well positioned to develop a healthy information ecology in the digital age. Washington’s high concentration of leading political actors, paired with a high volume of influential information hubs, maintains a supply of and demand for information. Within its 61 square mile area, the District of Columbia hosts hundreds of media outlets transmitting news to the rest of the world.

Washington ranks first out of the country’s largest designated market areas in terms of households that possess a computer with 82.9 percent of adults in the metro area claiming computer ownership, and again in terms of Internet access, with 80 percent of adults having accessed the Internet in the past 30 days ¹. Online news outlets are defined in this study as news of general interest within the local community. All the mainstream media news outlets have also established an online presence.