Newsweek Ruffles Feathers

Newsweek finally got a little attention from the bloggers out there by publishing an article with a link-bait ready title “Is User Generated Content Out?”

Turns out most of the article is more about the sort of “wisdom of crowds” approach of Wikipedia or YouTube versus the curated approach of newer sites like Knol and BigThink.

“In January, BigThink.com, a self-styled “YouTube for ideas” backed by former Harvard president Larry Summers and others, debuted its cache of polished video interviews with public intellectuals. “We think there’s demand for a nook of cyberspace where depth of knowledge and expertise reign,” says cofounder Victoria Brown.”

Gotta say, reading the article I am a bit surprised by how upset some people seem to be.

LostRemote:  No. Hell no. This story is wrong. Flat wrong. If you work in the media biz, please don’t let anyone in your company start passing this story around.

PoMo: I’ve had a few days to calm down after reading Newsweek’s “Web Exclusive” this week — Revenge of the Experts — so I think it’s safe to comment now. Newsweek has done what many of us feared, they’ve picked up Andrew Keen’s meme about the “cult of the amateur” and manufactured a new lede without taking into consideration the fallacy of the meme in the first place.

Much of this stems from long-bubbling upset over Andrew Keen’s The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing our Culture as CNet points out in their coverage of his appearance on a panel at Stanford:

“Truth be told, this remains a debate primarily between the elites and for the elites. These folks are ready to talk this topic to death, though the forums often degrade into personal slugfests.”