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WHAT'S THE RUSH?
by Susan Markisz
No doubt about it. The internet has revolutionized my world. On a good day when I don't have a hardware or software conflict (or I don't have to install new hardware, which still elicits heart palpitations and sweaty palms), I could even say the same of computers in general. I suppose if you're reading this, it's a safe bet the internet and computers have revolutionized yours too. I'm the first to say that I'm a fan of the internet. I used to be a prolific letter writer, but now, anyone who doesn't have an @ in their address, fugheddaboudit, no more fountain-penned letters from me! Email is my choice of communication these days. And I can't write anything by hand anymore. Oh sure, there are still holdouts, folks who refuse to be held captive by a computer screen. They may even be onto something, but more on this later.
Because of the internet, and more specifically The Digital Journalist, I get to write about what I think. (As if speaking ever stopped me before from expressing my opinions!) And I get to hear from folks from all over the world. Before this kind of forum existed, I would have had to have a contract with Strauss, Farrar, Giroux, a literary agent, an editor, and a favorite restaurant to schmooze or smolder over my latest rewrites. But now, I've got the microphone. I could tell you stories. In fact, I think I will.
Last year, a Russian photojournalist from Moscow covering the Millennium Summit approached me just as we walked in to cover the heads of state luncheon at the UN. "Aren't you Susan Markisz," he asked, as if I might have been Susan Sarandon, just la-di-dahing along in the Delegates Dining Room. "I am," I said, "And how is it you know me?" I asked him, clearly not in celebrity mode, because if I had been, of course he'd have known me from all my latest movies and Academy Awards. " Digital Journalist," he said instead, "and I read your latest journal." I'm not normally a cynic, but I had to see if he was for real. I was also a little nonplussed that he recognized me from my admittedly not so great head shot that month on TDJ. "You last wrote about July Fourth, 'Access Isn't Everything,'" he added.
Now this is awesome. Someone from halfway around the world recognized me from the something I had written on the internet. I actually felt powerful for a second. (well, you know, the power of communication and so on). So what's my problem?
My problem is that
in some ways, we've given the internet way too much power. Let me explain
the dichotomy.
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I covered the UN General Assembly Special Session on AIDS in June. We were sorely understaffed for the week; several key people were out sick. The rest of us were working 12 to 14 hour days. As photographers produced the standard-operating-procedure heads of state meet and greets, the lab feverishly worked to produce the 8 x 10 c-prints for the VIPs that wanted them, or digital files for the web team. The problem was, we soon learned in a memo from the powers-that-be, that AP and Reuters had beat the UN in getting its pictures on the web and they were none too happy about it! While this came as no surprise to me, I wanted to know when the UN had become a wire service! But wait, my thought process continued, I wanted to know who, except for the bean counters and maybe the photographers shooting assignments for the wire services, was keeping score? Who, I wanted to know, was glued to their computer for the latest breaking news, or in this case the latest speaker at the UN? What I really wanted to know was: What's the rush? |
| One or two newsworthy things actually happened while I was at the UN: Dr. Riyadh Al-Qaysi, the Under Secretary General for Foreign Affairs of Iraq held the Security Council hostage on June 28th, (strictly in a manner of speaking), filibustering for two hours as he recounted the hardships on the Iraqi people of the UN sanctions. Several days later, two high ranking delegates from the Iraqi delegation to the UN defected to the United States. The pictures that I took, for archives only, are probably the last ones taken before the defections, and were never seen in any news media, probably because they are politically incorrect. But you can't have it both ways, be a wire service one day and turn off the tap the next. | 
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Now I'm the first
to admit I'm still emerging from the Pleistocene era; I'm not even 100% digital
yet and therein lies part of the problem at the UN, which still shoots 90%
of its assignments on film. But let's be real here. How many folks are sitting
home glued to their computers for the latest breaking news at the UN or anywhere
else in the world for that matter? My non-scientific, random poll suggests
that some folks have jobs, inventing new medical treatments with stem cells,
raising their kids, teaching, building skyscrapers, saving lives, fighting
fires. They're not beating a path to the internet every five minutes to get
the latest news. Some folks might not even get their news until they get into
their car for the drive home after work. Personally, I have enough trouble
carrying on a conversation with someone at the other end of my cell phone
in my car (now illegal in New York and some other states without a headset),
much less try and connect to the internet with my Palm Pilot, to view the
latest on a tiny screen. Instead, I've got my radio set to 1010 WINS, "you
give us 22 minutes and we'll give you the world." Unless I have a reason to
be sitting at my computer, I'll take my world from the radio, TV or a newspaper,
thank you very much.
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So, while there is no denying that the internet has become a veritable force in the information highway, frankly, the rush to provide information to a website in 10 minute intervals baffles me. Hourly updates? Who's watching? Where's the scorecard? And who cares? I can hear the whispers already, " Not much of a newshound, is she?" I think that the real power of the internet lies elsewhere. It lies side by side with breaking news, but its emphasis need not be speed or competition; it can provide the kind of thing that is all but gone from newspapers and magazines these days: storytelling. |
I think we all need to get a life, as the saying goes. We need to go out and play ball with our kids, take a walk, read a book, talk to our spouses. What we really need to do is to stop being captive for awhile, and turn off the computer. (Funny, I think I've heard the same thing about TV). The news will still be there and chances are, hearing it or seeing it five or fifty minutes from now won't radically change our lives. The story is in the quality of the telling, not necessarily who gets there first.
Did I say something about being a dinosaur? I think I see the meteor coming.
Susan B. Markisz
August 1, 2001
