Burgerjournalistiek is de grootste bedreiging van traditionele journalistiek. Tegelijk biedt het enorme kansen voor diezelfde media. In 2007 constateerde ik al dat de meeste journalisten zitten te slapen en deze kans volledig missen. Gelukkig is de nieuwe generatie vakgenoten heel nieuwsgierig: gisteren organiseerden studenten van de Hogeschool van Amsterdam (sectie Media, Creatie en Informatie) het congres Citizen Journalism, What’s Your Opinion?

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“Blogs Are Dead.” Google it and you find it, lots of times. The world of digital media is constantly changing, so blogs are changing too. Every once in a while, some expert tries to be cool by writing an In Memoriam for blogging. Let’s put the critique into perspective. Not all blogs claiming the death of blogs have the same authority. Take for instance this blog post Ganesh Swami wrote in 2005: “Blogs aren’t cool anymore, since every kid happens to have his own.” Besides coolness Swami mentions some more arguments why blogs are dead: linearity, lack of time, non-conformance to standards, immaturity of blogging software, and stagnancy. However, Swami himself is still blogging. Just like all other critics. Wired is still blogging, and so are Robert Scoble, Hugh MacLeod, Andrew Keen, Steve Rubel and any other blog critic. Blogging is dead, long live blogging!

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We all know Andrew Keen as the Anti-Christ of Silicon Valley. Like a fanatic Don Quixote, he fought the windmills of Web 2.0 with his controversial book The Cult Of The Amateur. But now, Keen is back. A new book is coming up and, guess what, Keen is promoting it on Twitter. He explained himself tonight at The Next Web Salon, a dinner session from the organizers of The Next Web Conference. Keen is one of their keynotes. Whoever thinks Keen totally hates Twitter, is wrong. Actually, he is pretty positive about it. Not completely, but hey, it’s Andrew Keen!

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De onbeperkte bulk aan online content leidt tot chaos en een gebrek aan ankerpunten voor smaak en mening. Dit betoogt UvA-hoogleraar Abram de Swaan afgelopen weekend in NRC Handelsblad. Web 2.0 lijkt goeddeels aan de professor voorbij te zijn gegaan. Als vertegenwoordiger van de gevestigde elite onderschat hij de nieuwe online opinion leaders.

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