Threats to Journalism, Omitting Internet Hype
In about a month WebWatch will release two reports addressing online journalism topics. One of the reports is an analysis of how well the 10 most-trafficked and the bottom 10 of the top 100 most-trafficked news Web sites separate editorial content from advertising. On that topic, this is good reading -- from the Wall Street Journal's op-ed section, of all places, written by the top honcho of Dow Jones.
After the topic in this piece called "the exaggerated tendency toward pessimism," along with the stuff about the Japanese century and whatnot, the author should have considered adding an opposite, the "exaggerated tendency towards optimism," addressing the almost 10 years (around 1992 to 2000) of drooling, frothing media hype about the Internet. Disclosing my bias: I'm speaking as someone who, over the past 10 years, has never lived more than 90 minutes from midtown Manhattan, and yet has never been able, through phone companies, cable companies, satellite providers or anyone else, in residences in Long Island, central New Jersey, southern Putnam County at the Connecticut border, etc., etc., been able to get anything better at home than a 48K dialup connection to the Internet. What's the deal, Earthlink, Optimum, Dish Network, Verizon?
I'm told there are actually parts of Silicon Valley in the same situation, and I believe it.
No wonder so many people do their online shopping and recreational surfing from work.