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Repost from June 2013

12/25/2015

1 Comment

 
​A similar thing has happened to journalism. Journalists bemoan the demise or at least weakening of print journalism, saying the reduced readerships means the research staffs, editors and journalists have become fewer and that therefore the public will become increasingly poorly informed. Well, the demise or weakening of the NY times and the like is indeed a bad thing. But there is an up side. The problem with the old print system was "the boys on the bus" syndrome. That is, if there was a crisis in Egypt, large numbers of journalists would assemble in Cairo, all stay in the same hotel, and all report more or less the same story. None of them would speak Arabic, none of them would have a deeper long term knowledge of the country, and then the next week they would all fly to Paris to cover the next crisis, stay in the same hotel etc. At present, blogs on the internet are written by Egyptians. In fact many Egyptians, living in many parts of Egypt and speaking all the local languages. They are university professors, politicians, everything, and they have a huge experience of the local history, customs and intimate familiarity with the principal players. It's difficult for an outsider to filter out who to listen to, but there are also links, blog editors and increasing mechanisms to lead interested readers to the best sources. It's really hard to maintain that readers are less informed now than they were in the heyday of the Times.
1 Comment
Georgia Heating link
12/24/2022 03:37:36 pm

I enjoyed reading your blog thanks.

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         This blog is writing.  It has no pictures or video.
         When I was in high school I decided writing was the greatest art, in fact the most memorable contribution a person could make, pace the Lacaune  cave paintings.  I knew film was the growth industry, and in college I had the opportunity to hook up with film makers--New American Film notables had just moved into the college I was attending--but I still thought writing was the greater art.
    Consider these arguments:  
    1. A camera is a fantastic invention, especially when backed by computer capabilities.  But humanity's greatest invention without any doubt is language.
    2. Vision is the most powerful sense, and in film, hearing is added too.  But the imaginations is more powerful yet.  Writing drops into the mind like one of those Japanese clam shells, opens and releases a flower more fabulous than any image from nature. 
    3.  Rhetorical arguments are all very well but we have learned to trust empirical facts more.  So there are many great films.  But do any of them really compare well to Ulysses or Remembrance of Things Past?  The book is always better than the film.  Further, even the best films date severely.  The styles of acting change, the fashions, the technology becomes obsolete. But any educated person can still read Homer and Shakespeare, and changes in mores only make them even more interesting.
          Far from becoming outmoded, writing has entered yet another golden age.  Novels may have become epigones of those past, poetry obscure, but never have more people written more words for more readers.
          Everyone has a phone.  It can transmit voice, images and video, and yet even the marginally literate text and text and text.

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