The digital divide - the WTO-column

When we talk about the digital divide, it is mostly associated with poverty, the have's and the have nots. Of course: not being able to connect to the internet firmly locks you out from the wealth of digital knowledge. But there is another digital divide in the way people use and consume media. On one hand you have the digital vanguard who would blog, twitter, Skype and get their information through RSS-feeds on Google reader.

But for a vast majority of my friends the usage of the internet is limited to email and some daily browsing of their favorite websites, including some online media. On both sides of the fence there is typically very little patience for the other side, I'm not really an exception.

When you are caught by this 24-hour cycle of news and information, when you have learned how to manage that flow and still have a life, there is no way back.

Journalists tend to be on the wrong side of the fence and mostly stick to the rather traditional way of collecting information. When my digitally more advanced colleague Maria Trombly suggested her colleagues of the Shanghai foreign correspondents club to start a weblog to improve the information exchange, her proposal was met with an eerie silence. You only need a peek at their website to see that online communicating is not the strongest point of the Shanghai FCC.

Last Friday I received the first copy of a new English weekly on Asia, Asia-Weekly. That wants to build on the great tradition of now mostly defunct English-language weeklies like Asiaweek (where I used to be a contributor) and the Far Eastern Economic Review (it that still around?). Unfortunately, I forgot the copy at the office, so cannot quote from it since it has no real online presence, really a shocking discovery. I recall there was very little about China - the Asian country I'm really interested in - and not surprisingly the news was at least a week old. They had some very nice ads, so at least they have found some of advertisers who believe in the concept. I do think that when Asiaweek and FEER would have sticked to their old format, they would have been able to hold on to their existing - although declining - audiences. The old concept does not work with the new audiences. Sticking to the old media is very useful, especially when you are servicing an aging audience. To capture a new audience, new concepts are needed.

Even when you are in the business of explaining the world to others, as journalists are, it is very hard to accept that your own world is changing beyond recognition. At most journalism schools students still expect to get a job at a paper or a TV-station and very few educators realize they have to prepare their students for a whole new digital world. Like when the tsunami hit, some watched the waves coming in without expecting anything. Obliviance is a grace, until you are gone of course.

The past few weeks saw this beautiful story developing on the nailhouse in Chongqing. It was one of those typical stories that are nowadays driven by the internet. A 24-hour news cycle, without deadlines or professional journalists is changing the media world beyond recognition. Many deplore that and for very legitimate reasons. The tsunami was also very beautiful to see.

Fons Tuinstra

PS: This Jipjap movie (What we call the news) gives a hilarious view on US TV journalism. Worthwhile although the registration procedure is somewhat troublesome.