The profession of journalism, Part One: Authenticity and Social Media
This wasn't going to be the first in this series, but that pos Jason Pontin got my juices flowing in his column today on authentic communication, or lack of it, in social media. He writes: "Social-media Jason Pontin, in short, is a function of my business life. I know that this identity is inauthentic, because there is so much about which I do not post or blog. Do other habitual users of social media, whose social identities are as carefully constructed to attract attention, but who blog and post about everything (and thus feel no alienation), not know that those identities are inauthentic? Bemused by the difference between themselves and their social-media selves, are they mere Copies, cast from a few popular molds, endlessly reproduced among false friends?" Yes, that may be true, but then it was also true of the print-media Jason and the web-media Jason. It's also true of the trade show Jason, the featured speaker Jason, the father Jason, the husband Jaso...