One of the roles of media is to help people understand the world so we can make informed decisions - and then take action. The daily flood of news and information from all the big media institutions we love and love to hate is one approach to learning, sifting, filtering and evaluating all this information. Longer form magazines, books, documentaries, films, formal education and art are another. Talking and listening to friends, family and people we trust is yet another. It’s all so … much. What if you could put all of that wisdom and process in a blender and turn it into some sort of info power drink?

Technorati Tags: wikis, wemedia

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The daily newspaper in Norfolk, Virginia, announced on Oct. 23, in an anonymous editorial, that its anonymous editorial section will no longer endorse candidates for the U.S. presidency. "Presidential elections are not our beat," The Virginian-Pilot editorial said. "Our time is best spent on local and state problems, or those national ones that bear directly on us." Not like the U.S. presidency, even if it does have something or other to do with all those aircraft carriers and assorted shippy things at the U.S. Navy base in Norfolk. This is one newspaper that is taking a dramatic stand for the new new in newspapers, the call of the hyper-uber-maximus local local everything. The response to the new "no comment" stand on future presidents either validates the change, or should inspire the unnamed editorialists to find new work, fast. The newspaper’s public editor, Marvin Lake, wrote a few days after the announcement:

"I envisioned a spirited discussion, with readers reacting strongly, pro and con, one side accusing the paper of abdicating its "responsibility"; the other, declaring "It’s about time!" Guess what? It didn’t happen. I didn’t get a single phone call about the announcement. Nary an e-mail.

Ouch.

In fairness, the public editor, who does attach his name to his words, was a tad tough on the public. There were 31 comments on the original editorial. Which leads to yet another icky question: could it be that the public editor is even more ignored than the editorialists? Double ouch.

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The audio recording of last week’s Power To Change The World Summit is online and well worth a listen for anyone who cares about media as a force for change in the world.

You’ll find the Change Summit audio here.

The context was thinking about media for the next hundred years. You probably think in much shorter terms, and in terms of business models, technology, production or process innovation, or human behaviors and habits, or maybe even professional values and standards. Our over-arching theme last week was thinking about all of that in terms of outcomes - how media and technology, produced and distributed by anyone, can make the world better. That’s a lofty goal, and daunting - and also one that ought to be expressed and discussed more routinely by people and companies that make and sell media. How can our information, and all the human ingenuity and creativity it takes to produce and distribute it, be applied not simply to make more or better media - but to make the world itself better, for everyone?

Why don’t we expect this of our media? Maybe because our expectations have sunk so low. In the first conversation at the Change Summit, Fast Company founder (and iFOCOS board member) Alan Webber noted there’s a moral leadership gap in the United States. It includes media along with many other institutions and sectors.

Our research certainly bears this out, and so does common experience. Media’s “fall” in the United States, in terms of business declines and trust, is more severe than in many other countries. But the implications are global. If media of some form or another is indeed a force for change, and for making the world a better place, the moral leadership gap among today’s media institutions, and others, suggests opportunities for new leadership to fill the gap. That leadership could come from anywhere, and that’s an insight relevant to every sector of our culture.

Case closed, problem solved? Obviously not. We’re going to stick with these kinds of questions at iFOCOS, and in next year’s We Media Miami global forum and festival.

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