Transcript for the Piece Audio version of News 2.0: The Future of News in the Age of Social Media- Part One

This intro is on the pioece, but if you would prefer to read it with your own host, you may.

Back in 2006, when Time magazine chose "you" as its person of the year, the editors declared, "This is a story about community on a scale never seen before".

They were talking about how emerging technologies were allowing millions of people to share stories, pictures and videos on the Internet. They were talking Web 2.O, or social media.

The first wave of Internet tools, which arrived in the mid 1990's, were about improving already existing lines of communication. E-mail allowed us to get in touch with people instantaneously.

Websites gave us access to a vast treasure trove of information. Today, we call this Web 1.O.

But Web 2.0 is all about building online communities, with no geographic boundaries. Its most successful application is Facebook, which has grown from practically nothing in 2006, to more than 200 million users today. But it's not the only one. There's YouTube, Twitter and Wikipedia, to name a few.

In 2006, the shape of the revolution that Time Magazine proclaimed still seemed rather hazy. Some critics denounced the magazine's choice as pandering. But the picture is much clearer today, and the editors of Time look more like prophets than panderers.

Web 2.0 is transforming our culture, disrupting old businesses, and creating new ones.

And few businesses have been more profoundly affected by social media than the news business. There's been a lot of news about the news recently, most of it centred on the desperate struggle of many U.S. newspapers to weather competition from the Internet and to survive the recession.

But economics is only part of the story. In many ways, the biggest challenge for the mainstream media in a Web 2.0 world is coming from yes; you guessed it’s... you.

These days, all you need to publish your stories and pictures to the world, is a mobile device and an Internet connection.

This is the age of "citizen journalism."

But what does it all mean? What does news look like in a you-powered universe? What is the future of journalism when everyone can be their own editor, publisher and reporter? For the next hour - and again next week- Ira Basen is going to tackle these questions.

He's that same Ira Basen - long time radio producer and teacher – who last year brought us Spin Cycles a wonderful 6 part series on the uneasy connections between journalism and public relations. Here now is News 2.O: The Future of News in an Age of Social Media.