Thomas Friedman, at a recent Express Group Idea Exchange, pointed out that in the age of digital media and 24/7 news channels, people are often distracted by ?shiny objects? that take away from real newsworthy issues. Take, for example, the hasty firing of Shirley Sherrord?an African-American woman appointed as the USDA?s Georgia state director of rural development was forced out after a blogger circulated a video clip documenting an out-of-context allegedly racist comment?overshadowed Obama?s signing the historic financial regulation Bill into Law.
While going digital has revolutionised access to information, in the process helping to remove asymmetries, it has also resulted in a creating an ?easy to vent and forget? forum. The blogosphere is littered with ?activists? whose causes change by the hour. Unfortunately, for the digital visionaries, policymaking remains largely analog, says Friedman. Given the plethora of information available, important legislation and policy action get twittered out of relevance by more controversial aka gossip-worthy issues. Also, beware, the content you see today may be gone tomorrow since, ironically, there is less documentation for the beginning of the 21st century than the 20th. Why? Search engines like Google only index the Web, they do not archive it, as the Economist points out. It might be time for true activism to take to the streets, if for not much else than recall value.
