At the Web 2.0 keynote sessions this morning, Dan Lyons (Fake Steve Jobs) offered his perspective on why he started the Fake Steve Jobs blog.
And while not many would really care about this, I should preface this by explaining the respect I have for journalists. When I was 9 years old, I decided I would grow up to write for the San Jose Mercury News, and although that didn’t happen, I worked for a local newspaper for a while. It just didn’t seem sustainable with eco-issues and quickly changing innovation ahead of us.
I should also mention that right now, I am sitting in the Web 2.0 blogtropol.us lounge and just feeling a little bit nervous. There are two very prominent members of traditional media sitting at the same roundtable as I, which for me, is a little bit awkward even though we are all writers. In short, I am feeling a little bit starstruck.
“What did you all think of this morning’s keynote?” Neither one of them attended but the answer was gruff. OK, so what, do I really care what they thought about it?
For me, the point was clear that even though it’s obvious that media is changing from a unilateral model to a bilateral model, where you “take a magazine and put it online, all of us are forming a group and we entertain ourselves,” it was still interesting to hear what he had to say about the changing media.
For those who didn’t see the keynote, Lyons was different from the rest, much like his blog. He used to humor to stand out, and I was glad to hear the message he had to offer. It was good to learn that at least some journalists were taking advantage of the “fear” of the unknown, the challenges of being a media person, and trying to seize it as an opportunity. I met an old skool journalist last night who was willing to learn, but it look like it is a bit discouraging out there.
I’m glad to know from Lyons that the outlook is good, and that journalists still have a chance to be journalists, even if the media is different.
That’s good news, because if it weren’t for journalists, then I wouldn’t be here in the first place.
