Oh those TED talks, they never fail to inspire!

 

If you're a big news buff like me, you'll probably like this TED Talk by Clay Shirky on how social media is making history and changing the face of the news.  I know it's a not too revolutionary a concept these days with all this social media buzz going around, but I think it sums up the whole news-versus-social media dynamic really well and opens doors to a number of other issues that I wanted to address in my final project. Through my research I'm hoping to answer questions like:

•  What does the future of the news look like with the growing ubiquity of social media?  
• Does the partnership between social media and the news industry increase the objectivity and professionalism of the news, or lower its standards?  
• How can we better enhance this new wave of citizen journalism for the sake of preserving the quality of news, as well as the ability to obtain information from even the most oppressed societies around the world?

I'm still trying to hone the topic down a little better, but if you guys have any thoughts or suggestions on this I would greatly appreciate it.  Thanks! :)

"In a world where media is global, social, ubiquitous and cheap, in a world of media where the former audience are now increasingly full participants, in that world, media is less and less often about crafting a single message to be consumed by individuals... The question we all face now is, 'How can we make best use of this media? Even though it means changing the way we've always done it.'" - Clay Shirky