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There was a guest on The Colbert Report this past week, Andrew Keen, who wrote a book called The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture. I thought immediately of my mass communication class at Bethany, and how a book like this would have been great to spark a debate.

His opinion is that the blogosphere, YouTube, Wikipedia, etc., are just methods to steal content, spread poorly produced/crappy material and lies, and make people dumb. He apparently has been published in The Weekly Standard, which, judging from editor Bill Kristol's appearances on The Daily Show, is...misguided. But they were nice enough to give Mr. Keen a rave review.

I see some of Mr. Keen's points, but I don't agree with him on the whole [based on his interview with Stephen Colbert], which is part of why it sounds like a fascinating read. The internet, like anything else, when used properly and responsibly, can be a great way to spread culture and enrich lives. But we know that already. The internet is not killing our culture. People who put no effort into education are killing our culture.

If the spread of stupid videos on YouTube is degrading our society, is Mr. Keen also going to blame the other companies whose technology make that possible? Is Sony or Canon or whoever to blame for producing a digital camera that records video? I don't think so.

He seems like kind of an ass, and seemed really miserable during the Stephen Colbert interview. Take this post from the book's page on Amazon.com about another recent discussion he had:

In my Guardian newspaper debate with Guardian Unlimited's digital supremo Emily Bell, she outwitted me and then took me to the cleaners. My hunch is that I went in a bit cocky, stuck out my chin and got a good walloping. She's a tough bird, that Emily Bell. I'm not debating her again.

I hope he's not serious about not debating her again just because she "won," but at least he's honest, I guess. The debate can be read in its entirety here:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/take_two/2007/08/andrew_keen_v_emily_bell.html.

Anyway, the link to the book on Amazon is here, including some of the posts sent to customers who purchased the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Cult-Amateur-Internet-killing-culture/dp/0385520808.