Comments on: recasting readers as learners & citizens http://alecresnick.org/2009/05/07/recasting-readers-as-learners-citizens/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=recasting-readers-as-learners-citizens Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:36:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Auston http://alecresnick.org/2009/05/07/recasting-readers-as-learners-citizens/comment-page-1/#comment-174 Auston Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:36:40 +0000 http://alec.thesprouts.org/?p=866#comment-174 <p>Thought you might like this?</p> <p>http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705298649/Universities-will-be-irrelevant.html</p> Thought you might like this?

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705298649/Universities-will-be-irrelevant.html

]]> By: alec http://alecresnick.org/2009/05/07/recasting-readers-as-learners-citizens/comment-page-1/#comment-171 alec Thu, 07 May 2009 19:32:28 +0000 http://alec.thesprouts.org/?p=866#comment-171 <p>[author-edit] And I realized that I left out the acknowledgements of people who were kind enough to read drafts of this post. Updated appropriately.</p> [author-edit] And I realized that I left out the acknowledgements of people who were kind enough to read drafts of this post. Updated appropriately.

]]> By: alec http://alecresnick.org/2009/05/07/recasting-readers-as-learners-citizens/comment-page-1/#comment-172 alec Thu, 07 May 2009 19:29:39 +0000 http://alec.thesprouts.org/?p=866#comment-172 <p>[author-edit] Updated date to reflect actual date of publication; April 30 was the intended date, but I let the post languish while I played around with my blog.</p> <p>Also, if you're interested, you can take a look at the progress of the article since I started it. <a href="http://github.com/aresnick/aresnick_docs/blob/master/creating/civics-as-a-priority-of-political-discourse.md" rel="nofollow">It's history can be found at GitHub</a>, and I plan to continue to version control blog drafts there in the future.</p> [author-edit] Updated date to reflect actual date of publication; April 30 was the intended date, but I let the post languish while I played around with my blog.

Also, if you’re interested, you can take a look at the progress of the article since I started it. It’s history can be found at GitHub, and I plan to continue to version control blog drafts there in the future.

]]> By: alec http://alecresnick.org/2009/05/07/recasting-readers-as-learners-citizens/comment-page-1/#comment-173 alec Thu, 07 May 2009 18:05:51 +0000 http://alec.thesprouts.org/?p=866#comment-173 <p>There's still a lot to still address--this is all just a sketch. I don't know where to take the questions this post raises, but they all seem predicated on an understanding of how supply and demand inform one another:</p> <ul> <li><p>The blogosphere has just as distorted an incentive structure as the <em>Times</em> news office. What does it mean to anticipate its weaknesses and failures? What does the media landscape look like when there are many incentive structures? How do we nurture that pluralism?</p></li> <li><p>What ingredients make deep understanding more than an underdog? How can we create a market for deep understanding? Does that involve finding sweet spots of broad appeal and the potential for depth, set to a score of emotional leverage and social currency (as in "The Great Pool of Money")?</p></li> <li><p>Is every citizen a journalist? Or is journalism a meeting place where every citizen expects to be, once in a while? Does the idea of journalism fade into the background--will one day, calling yourself a "citizen journalist" make as much sense as identifying as an "Internet user?" Or will journalism be set aside as part of our identity, as we do with being a voter or churchgoer?</p></li> </ul> <p>These questions aren't new. (Which doesn't mean you shouldn't jump in with questions or suggested directions of investigation in the comments. I'm particularly looking for the language other people have used to think about this, so that I can find what others have said.) But they point toward rediscovering journalism's potential as an educational organ of society. The value we place on freedom of speech and press point to how deeply education is a civic function: so much so that it could be said to be incidental to the exercise of freedom. That is, the point may not be the learning, but the active, civic life.</p> <p>What does a vision like <em>that</em> mean for educators and journalists and all the other professions that comprise a healthy, civic landscape? We can't afford to continue to tolerate and extend the specialization of our civic functions, leaving citizens out of the loop.</p> There’s still a lot to still address–this is all just a sketch. I don’t know where to take the questions this post raises, but they all seem predicated on an understanding of how supply and demand inform one another:

  • The blogosphere has just as distorted an incentive structure as the Times news office. What does it mean to anticipate its weaknesses and failures? What does the media landscape look like when there are many incentive structures? How do we nurture that pluralism?

  • What ingredients make deep understanding more than an underdog? How can we create a market for deep understanding? Does that involve finding sweet spots of broad appeal and the potential for depth, set to a score of emotional leverage and social currency (as in “The Great Pool of Money”)?

  • Is every citizen a journalist? Or is journalism a meeting place where every citizen expects to be, once in a while? Does the idea of journalism fade into the background–will one day, calling yourself a “citizen journalist” make as much sense as identifying as an “Internet user?” Or will journalism be set aside as part of our identity, as we do with being a voter or churchgoer?

These questions aren’t new. (Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t jump in with questions or suggested directions of investigation in the comments. I’m particularly looking for the language other people have used to think about this, so that I can find what others have said.) But they point toward rediscovering journalism’s potential as an educational organ of society. The value we place on freedom of speech and press point to how deeply education is a civic function: so much so that it could be said to be incidental to the exercise of freedom. That is, the point may not be the learning, but the active, civic life.

What does a vision like that mean for educators and journalists and all the other professions that comprise a healthy, civic landscape? We can’t afford to continue to tolerate and extend the specialization of our civic functions, leaving citizens out of the loop.

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