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The Cult of the Amateur - Discussion

Tue Jun 19, 2007 at 05:02:04 PM EST

In "Going Down the Tubes," Aaron Barlow reviews Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture (New York: Currency, 2007).

Barlow observes:

"Andrew Keen has written a book that attempts to be a take-down of citizen journalists and bloggers. Before I get into a close look at it, let's set up the discussion through a little imagining:

What if I were a somewhat successful "Silicon Valley entrepreneur," having done well enough to be able to recite stories of my encounters with the big kids ... what if I were something of a writer on technology, but not really breaking out of the second tier ... what if I were both these things ^__ so close to the big time, but not quite there. Might I not, to get there, consider writing a book against type, something so startling (coming from me) and so much in agreement with deep-seated fears of the Web and of common folk that it would immediately become the darling book of the fearful and powerful?"

Read the review on the ePluribus Media Journal and then join us here for a discussion.

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The Cult of the Amateur - Discussion | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)

A "Keen" dissection of the book (5.00 / 2) (#1)

by Lawrence Lessig can be found here ... The Keen Reader. Lessig also reviews the book on his blog:

But what is puzzling about this book is that it purports to be a book attacking the sloppiness, error and ignorance of the Internet, yet it itself is shot through with sloppiness, error and ignorance. It tells us that without institutions, and standards, to signal what we can trust (like the institution (Doubleday) that decided to print his book), we won't know what's true and what's false. But the book itself is riddled with falsity -- from simple errors of fact, to gross misreadings of arguments, to the most basic errors of economics.

by roxy317 on Tue Jun 19, 2007 at 08:51:42 PM EST

: Whoa, Roxy (none / 0) (#2)

I followed some of your links... sounds as if Keen is suffering from the problem of "projection" -- casting his own inadequacies as those of others.
Good finds!

by Cho on Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 08:57:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]

kuddos (5.00 / 1) (#3)

Good work, Aaron.

by stoy on Sat Jun 23, 2007 at 08:51:06 PM EST

Where the real professionals are. (5.00 / 1) (#4)

There seems to be a recognized profession of experts keening over the fate of mankind, to which they will offer the only protection that works. However, more and more, I am finding serious, professional journalists turning to the internet for self publication solely because of the refusal of other public information sources to spend the time to get the story right.

No one exemplifies this more than Norman Oder and his ongoing reportage of the Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn and the failures of major media to report on it with any degree of accuracy. What began as a lengthy unmasking of the intentional bias (worst case) or sloppy writing (possibly just as bad) at the NY Times has become the Atlantic Yard Report and Oder has been the single most reliable source of information at this major ($4 Billion) intersection of community development, eminent domain law, real estate and the ever messy world of Brooklyn Politics. Time after time, Oder gets the story right when the Times, the NY Post, The Brooklyn Eagle, etc. all fail.

I would love to Oder on The Charlie Rose Show because I trust his reporting.

by wes on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 11:19:36 AM EST

: Very interesting thoughts, wes! (none / 0) (#5)

I don't know all the details about the Brooklyn Yards project, and have some curiosity...
Would love it if you could share some more?

by Cho on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 02:13:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]