Newswatch India has an interesting article, and one that Andrew Keen should probably read as in Mr Keen’s eyes the problem with bloggers over professional journalism is that journalists fact check etc. Findings from a forthcoming research paper by Scott R Maier, an associate professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication (so, one would hope someone whom Keen would accept as a professional), found that almost half of the articles published by daily newspapers in the US contain one or more factual errors, and less than two per cent end up being corrected.
I had the chance to hear Keen speak about his book at London’s RSA on Tuesday night. He was there to discuss the ‘great digital seduction’ with Tim Montgomerie, editor of ConservativeHome.com and BritainAndAmerica.com.
It was an interesting and entertaining evening, with Keen once again making some valid points amongst the dross. The most entertaining and surprising exchange turned out to be between Keen – who often, rightly or wrongly, comes across as someone obsessed with Wikipedia and how dreadful it is, and how wonderful Britannica is – and someone from Britannica. Keen was clearly horrified by the idea that instead of expertise, Britannica wanted to sell confidence. He got so into rant mode at this point that the man from Britannica (not to be confused with the man from Delmonte) had to respond that Keen hadn’t actually listened to what he had said – a point I and many others agreed with.
Seeing Keen live is an odd experience as he manages to be quite single minded and pompous one minute and quite conciliatory the next. And at end, as in his book, Keen seemed to say, actually I think despite all my doom and gloom everything will be fine in the future. An interesting character, this Mr Keen.