At the D8 Conference Steve Jobs lamented the descent of news-gathering and editorial functions into a world of bloggers. As Jobs puts it,
One of my beliefs very strongly is that any democracy depends on a free, healthy press, and so when I think of the most important journalistic endeavors in this country, I think of things like the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and publications like that,” Jobs replies. “And we all know what’s happened to the economics of those businesses. I don’t want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers. Anything that we can do to help the news-gathering organizations find new ways of expression so that they can afford to keep their news-gathering and editorial operations intact, I’m all for.”
Other than a blatant justification for the iPad’s closed format and Apple’s recent collaboration with Rupert Murdoch, of all people, Jobs may have a point. Are there too many blogs and bloggers to disseminate information in a manner that can generate effective political action? Can bloggers create networks that will avoid the stratifying grasp and control of large multinationals and states while at the same time providing for the emergence of shared objectives sufficient to motivate an effective political process.
Here’s a link to the full story of Jobs’ interview. There’s a full video of this and other interviews at the site as well.