Jen,
I thought about the word "scary" that you used to describe how one might feel while shaping a discourse with other people. Obviously, this is an extempore activity during which one does not have total control over what is being delivered. It reminds me of the time when a McCain spokesman was asked by a CNN reporter if Sarah Palin had any overseas experience in diplomacy. The guy kept repeating that Obama did not have any, obviously avoiding a direct answer. The reporter kept repeating her question, and the spokesperson kept skirting the bush. Eventually, the exaspeated reporter said: "OK, I give it to you baby!" This was a classic "scary" situation for the spokesman which he would have given anything to avoid. He had simply not come to the interview prepared with an answer to this particular query! But, on the other side of the table, and the TV screen, the reporter and this viewer had a big laugh, at the cost of the unprepared spokesperson. I wonder if he still has his job! There is both the positive and the negative side to this situation, depending which side you are on. As a viewer of the live telecast, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the truth (about Palin) spill out through the spokesman's unpreparedness. Maybe that's the reason why Palin is not allowed to give any one-on-one or live interviews to the press (she may only deliver prepared speeches).
Moushumi
Footloose and Shutter-happy
1 comment:
I wish I would have seen this interview. I think that the "scary" feeling is one I often felt as a reporter and still feel as a teacher. It's a good scary in that you are never exactly sure what is going to happen or what is going to be said. Whenever you step away from your own personal keyboard and engage others in conversation (whether face-to-face or in online chatrooms or blogs) you run the risk of things getting way from you. You also have the opportunity to grow your knowledge in ways you couldn't otherwise.
It seems that communal knowledge making is key to the concept of new media. Do you think some of that "scary" is involved in new media? By making media more interactive and accessible to those who traditionally had less power we are radically shifting the way knowledge is made and controlled.
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