Daniel Meadows, Mr President

[Dan O'Brien]

The democratisation of the media. Sounds worryingly like a Bushism, doesn’t it? But, the point its making is fascinating. Editors and journalists can no longer ride looking down on their audience with a sense of superiority built only on the traditional assumption that the audience sits down and listens while the journalist tells them what they need to know.

But this one-way relationship has not just levelled out, its completely turned on its head. Why? Because the journalists are not the only one's with stories to tell. And, more importantly, they're no longer the only one's with the power to spread those stories.

The journalist is now controlled by the audience in what they cover and how they cover it to a stronger extent today than ever before. In Rupert Murdoch’s speech a few years ago he quoted Jeff Jarvis: "give the people control of media, they will use it. Don’t give people control of media, and you will lose them". In effect, the journalists need to take a while to re-enter the real world and try being the audience. There's a whole new aspect of journalism developing - where a journalist is not just the one who tells the stories, but is also the one who helps everyone else tell theirs.

Am I spouting idealistic rubbish? Maybe. But that's the version I'm going with, clinging onto to the idea that there will actually be any jobs left at the end of this!