Searching for iron axes (and learning to use them) in 2009
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 03, 2009 00:00
A first column of the new year should be one that shares a vision, a look ahead, a few ideas about solving all the problems we report upon daily. After all, 2008 was an innovative year at the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. We have added greatly to the newspaper: refocused business pages, highlighted sections on critical sectors, a "Horizons" page each day examines Turkey’s near abroad.
We finally wrestled our way to pages devoted to readers in Turkey’s south and we are nearing a workable way to track the urban dynamism of Istanbul and other cities in a daily section we call "Metronome." All while improving our basic franchise, which is covering the national political and social life of the country.
So what next in this time of growing economic trouble, looming local elections, war in Gaza, tension in the Caucasuses and Russia’s decision to turn off the heat in millions of Ukraine homes? What should we be doing in 2009? In truth, I don’t know. The best I can do is share a few of the questions on my mind as we go over our list of resolutions, plans and start planning strategy.
Shortly before the new year I had lunch with a friend, a "Generation Y" person who was born about the time I was in my fifth or sixth year in the newspaper business. Conversations with her always take me back to a sociology class in which we learned about the destruction of a primitive society in New Guinea in the 17th or 18th century. The problem was that the economy was based on cutting and trading wood. Well-intentioned missionaries showed up and decided to lend a helping hand by distributing iron axes. This was a major technological improvement, as the chopping down of trees had hitherto been accomplished with stone axes. These stone tools were difficult to make and inefficient, but carefully guarded as the essential source of power; ownership of a stone axe was the mortar cementing the social hierarchy.
For a variety of reasons, the young took to the new iron technology much more rapidly than the old. The result of the introduction of new and better technology, however, was an inter-generational transfer of power. And all hell broke loose. Which I is sort of how I feel about the landscape in the information business and all the challenges that loom. I recently bought an I-Pod, but I have not figured out how to use it. I have no interest in mastering MSN Messenger and feel mildly guilty about this. I have no idea what "twitter" is, but I assume it is important in the "blogosphere."
Here are just a few of the things my elegant and educated young friend shared over a glass of merlot:
Soon, China will be the No. 1 English speaking country in the world. The population of Indians with genius level IQ’s is larger than the entire population of the United States Ñ morons included. To reach an audience of 50 million, it took radio 38 years, television 13 years, the Internet 4 years, I-Pod usage 3 years and Facebook just two years. MySpace, the rival social networking site, now has 200 million users; were Facebook a country it would the world’s fifth largest. Another point to ponder: A week’s worth of the New York Times contains more information than the typical person in the 18th century would encounter in a lifetime. Or this pearl: The student in a four year technical program at a university must deal with the fact that more than half of what he or she learns in the first year will be obsolete by the third year of study.
"We live," she explained as she finished her salad, "in exponential times."
My response to all these daunting realities was to take a paper napkin. On it, I roughly drew the graphic you see attached to this column. It is taken from a book written in 1972, the famous "Limits to Growth" report by the Club of Rome. What the club sought to do in the graphic, was to illustrate the problem of humanity’s ability to grapple with long-term problems. It reflects that the concerns on our minds, and on those of policy makers, are largely short-term. "Human perspectives," for the most part, are centered in the lower left hand corner of the graphic. Solutions, however, demand that we think and act closer to the upper right hand corner. I have carried this graphic, in one form or another, through my entire news career. For I think it reflects the fundamental challenge of journalism: to push thinking and debate into the sphere of the longer term.
This much, I allowed, has not changed in the news business. But, can we do it with stone tools in the Iron Age? I then further argued that the plethora of new ways to move and parse information may not be serving us. Yes, we can download realtime video of destruction in Gaza to our mobile phones. But does this exponential growth of data take us closer to the wisdom and knowledge needed to broker a long-term peace between Israelis and Palestinians?
I voiced the concern that today’s news and information business may well be taking us the wrong direction on this graphic depiction of the human perspectives condition. She tentatively agreed, but said it doesn’t have to be so. She promised some ideas on this front. And then she folded my napkin into her purse. About then our lunch was interrupted, appropriately enough, by reality emanating from our mobile phones. Time to go. I asked for the check.
So, answers remain elusive. But in addition to the minestrone, lunch last week provided much food for thought on the news business. I hope we will be able to bring you some iron axes in 2009.
David Judson is editor-in-chief of the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review
So what next in this time of growing economic trouble, looming local elections, war in Gaza, tension in the Caucasuses and Russia’s decision to turn off the heat in millions of Ukraine homes? What should we be doing in 2009? In truth, I don’t know. The best I can do is share a few of the questions on my mind as we go over our list of resolutions, plans and start planning strategy.
Shortly before the new year I had lunch with a friend, a "Generation Y" person who was born about the time I was in my fifth or sixth year in the newspaper business. Conversations with her always take me back to a sociology class in which we learned about the destruction of a primitive society in New Guinea in the 17th or 18th century. The problem was that the economy was based on cutting and trading wood. Well-intentioned missionaries showed up and decided to lend a helping hand by distributing iron axes. This was a major technological improvement, as the chopping down of trees had hitherto been accomplished with stone axes. These stone tools were difficult to make and inefficient, but carefully guarded as the essential source of power; ownership of a stone axe was the mortar cementing the social hierarchy.
For a variety of reasons, the young took to the new iron technology much more rapidly than the old. The result of the introduction of new and better technology, however, was an inter-generational transfer of power. And all hell broke loose. Which I is sort of how I feel about the landscape in the information business and all the challenges that loom. I recently bought an I-Pod, but I have not figured out how to use it. I have no interest in mastering MSN Messenger and feel mildly guilty about this. I have no idea what "twitter" is, but I assume it is important in the "blogosphere."
Here are just a few of the things my elegant and educated young friend shared over a glass of merlot:
Soon, China will be the No. 1 English speaking country in the world. The population of Indians with genius level IQ’s is larger than the entire population of the United States Ñ morons included. To reach an audience of 50 million, it took radio 38 years, television 13 years, the Internet 4 years, I-Pod usage 3 years and Facebook just two years. MySpace, the rival social networking site, now has 200 million users; were Facebook a country it would the world’s fifth largest. Another point to ponder: A week’s worth of the New York Times contains more information than the typical person in the 18th century would encounter in a lifetime. Or this pearl: The student in a four year technical program at a university must deal with the fact that more than half of what he or she learns in the first year will be obsolete by the third year of study.
"We live," she explained as she finished her salad, "in exponential times."
My response to all these daunting realities was to take a paper napkin. On it, I roughly drew the graphic you see attached to this column. It is taken from a book written in 1972, the famous "Limits to Growth" report by the Club of Rome. What the club sought to do in the graphic, was to illustrate the problem of humanity’s ability to grapple with long-term problems. It reflects that the concerns on our minds, and on those of policy makers, are largely short-term. "Human perspectives," for the most part, are centered in the lower left hand corner of the graphic. Solutions, however, demand that we think and act closer to the upper right hand corner. I have carried this graphic, in one form or another, through my entire news career. For I think it reflects the fundamental challenge of journalism: to push thinking and debate into the sphere of the longer term.
This much, I allowed, has not changed in the news business. But, can we do it with stone tools in the Iron Age? I then further argued that the plethora of new ways to move and parse information may not be serving us. Yes, we can download realtime video of destruction in Gaza to our mobile phones. But does this exponential growth of data take us closer to the wisdom and knowledge needed to broker a long-term peace between Israelis and Palestinians?
I voiced the concern that today’s news and information business may well be taking us the wrong direction on this graphic depiction of the human perspectives condition. She tentatively agreed, but said it doesn’t have to be so. She promised some ideas on this front. And then she folded my napkin into her purse. About then our lunch was interrupted, appropriately enough, by reality emanating from our mobile phones. Time to go. I asked for the check.
So, answers remain elusive. But in addition to the minestrone, lunch last week provided much food for thought on the news business. I hope we will be able to bring you some iron axes in 2009.
David Judson is editor-in-chief of the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review