Next week's class needs YOU!

So one of the things we'll be doing in next week's class is discussing the claim that the Internet 'democratises' our society by giving ordinary citizens unprecedented opportunities to 'have a voice' - to comment on the news, to post their own short films to a global audience, to become producers and not just consumers of culture.

Those who make such a claim are often confronted by sceptical voices who say things like: "it isn't democratic because you need to have a certain level of money (for equipment), skill, and spare time on your hands to take part in the new environment". Hard to argue with that. But the sceptic will often go further and say: "It's true that the Internet is awash with blogs, videos and podcasts produced by 'ordinary' citizens, but most of this 'user generated content' is crap!" How is that good for democracy? If people are spending their spare time making puerile videos for YouTube or writing 'opinion pieces' (rants) about Iraq on their blog, then they're spending less time watching high quality films or reading well-informed journalism about Iraq. This leads to a more 'active' but dumber citizenry, right?

Well, in the spirit of interactivity, which this course obviously embraces, I'm looking for some 'user' input from you. What I would like you to do is to send me examples of 'user generated content' (it could be online videos, websites, blogs, podcasts or whatever) that disproves the claim that it's all crap. The best example gets shown in class and wins a (small) prize as yet undetermined. Email me your links, please - don't just leave a comment (otherwise everyone will have already seen it come class time!)