Modul Mata Kuliah Journalisme Online - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

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?
It could work, I' d think, especially today, when there are a number of real divides in understanding
about the Web -- even among those (like this imagined me) who were instrumental in its first successes
in the 1990s. What I could do is devise an argument attacking the core success of the Web, providing the
doomsayers an ally from within what they imagine is the enemy camp. What I could do is pander to the
elitist instincts that make even the title of Cyril Kornbluth' s 1951 science-fiction story "The Marching
Morons" still the scary image of the inevitable future.
Now, I am not going to accuse Keen doing exactly that, of thinking all this out dispassionately, planning
his book simply as a career move __ but it is surely working out that way __ and his background is just
about what I describe. Plus, in the two weeks since its release, Keen has been all over the media
peddling his "end of the world" scenario.
It sure could make one suspicious.
It surely would, if it weren't that the book shows a mind incapable of the sophisticated thought such a
plan would necessitate. Otherwise, I would be certain of it. But it would take a brilliant mind to see in
advance that a Silicon Valley insider attacking the Web through just the avenues of greatest concern to
the Luddites would bring out the remnants of the mindless (and pre-Web) commercial press like ants to
honey. If anything about his book showed even a hint of brilliance, I would suspect that Keen had pulled
off quite a coup. And I would admire the chutzpah, if nothing else.
But, no. This is a poorly thought and written book, amateurish in the worst ways (the best of
amateurism, as we all know, is well thought and written) __ which, of course, is ironic, given the topic.
The book is simplistic in strategy and cartoonish in understanding __ and it shows a refusal to look at
anything the author doesn't want to see. No one who wrote this ill-considered diatribe could manipulate
any part of the media in the way I've been considering.
Keen fires a poorly loaded and understood blunderbuss, hitting a few targets, but with force so light it
does no damage. After all, it's easy to portray almost anything as inane, if that' s what you are setting
out to do, deliberately ignoring the good and running through the bad so quickly that your sweeping
generalizations brook no arguments. Like this:
YouTube eclipses even the blogs in the inanity and absurdity of its content. Nothing seems too prosaic or
narcissistic for these videographer monkeys. The site is an infinite gallery of amateur movies showing
poor fools dancing, singing, eating, washing, shopping, driving, cleaning, sleeping, or just staring at their
computers. (5)