0:00:14.959,0:00:17.543
Paul Levinson: So, how are you doing?[br](Audience) Good!

0:00:17.584,0:00:19.454
PL: That was a a nice introduction.

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So I'm trying to decide should I talk[br]about science fiction, time travel,

0:00:23.539,0:00:26.009
the First Amendment,

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but I'll stick[br]to what I'm supposed to talk about

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which is I think one[br]of the most revolutionary developments

0:00:33.640,0:00:36.959
in our history as a species.

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What I'm talking about is a development

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which for the first time[br]has put the power

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not only to communicate to one another[br]which we've always had

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but the power to communicate[br]to the world at large

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in everyone's hands

0:00:55.560,0:00:59.199
and not only through the written word

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but through speech[br]and audiovisual content.

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That is a major path-breaking development

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and let me just start by giving you[br]a couple of examples,

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and then we'll trace[br]a little bit of the history of that

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to put it into a proper context.

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I'm sure most of you know

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that Barack Obama won[br]his reelection campaign a few months ago,

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and I'm sure most of you also know,[br]if you follow the news at all,

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that one of the key factors[br]in Obama's victory

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was Mitt Romney's statement

0:01:43.563,0:01:48.192
that 47% the American population

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were not of interest to him,[br]his supporters, and the Republican Party.

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In a very contemptuous way, Romney said

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47% of Americans are only[br]interested in a handout;

0:02:03.209,0:02:07.119
we're never going[br]to get their vote anyway.

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That was actually a statement

0:02:11.150,0:02:15.687
that a political candidate[br]might well have made

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to his or her rich supporters,

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and in fact, that is indeed[br]the physical premise

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where Romney made that statement.

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But as I'm sure most of you also know,

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it was not just those people[br]at that fundraising event

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who heard and saw[br]Romney make that statement.

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In fact, eventually, most Americans[br]saw that statement.

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Why was that?

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A bartender had brought in[br]a little video camera

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not much bigger at all[br]than a typical smartphone,

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had put it on the bar,[br]had pointed it to Romney,

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had turned on the recording[br]and just let the video recording run

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while Romney made that statement.

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We could talk about[br]the ethics of doing that.

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Is it ethical to record someone

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when they don't know[br]they're being recorded?

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I think those are[br]very interesting issues there;

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I think by and large,

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it's not particularly the height of ethics

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to record someone when they don't know[br]they're being recorded,

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but as in most things in life,

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sometimes we have a collision

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of ethical problems and ethical concerns.

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And so, against that questionable practice

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of recording someone[br]without his or her knowledge,

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you have the other important point

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that don't the American people[br]deserve to know

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who they are voting for?

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I think of those two issues

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the greater good resides with

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the American people knowing[br]a little bit more about the candidates.

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As a matter of fact,

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what happened was this very hour[br]of Romney making those remarks

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was not only recorded[br]on this little video camera

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it was put up on YouTube, and it was[br]eventually picked up by the mass media.

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And so, although the actual recording[br]took place in May,

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it wasn't until September[br]that everyone began talking about it.

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One of the words[br]in my talk is transmedia.

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And it's important to recognize

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that social media, in and of themselves,

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don't have the power all the time[br]to get information out to the world.

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In fact, what you often need[br]are the traditional mass media

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to come into the system

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and amplify the message

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that the social medium has created

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and put up to the world[br]in the first place.

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So that's a key component[br]of this revolution.

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It's transmedia,[br]meaning it rarely operates

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just from one medium[br]going to other media

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or just one medium going[br]to other inconsequential media;

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rather, it operates

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by going from one medium[br]to other media

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and then hitting the jackpot[br]of the more consequential mass media

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which still have an enormous[br]amount of power in our society.

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Often, we hear people talking[br]about television versus the Internet,

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cable television versus YouTube,

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the newspaper versus Twitter

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as a source of news.

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In fact that's not, I think,

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the most accurate way to look[br]at this current media environment,

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because what you find on Twitter[br]are links to news reporting

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in the New York Times, in newspapers,[br]on television, and so forth.

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Conversely what you find[br]in the New York Times,

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and on conventional,[br]traditional news broadcasts

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are clips from YouTube[br]and various events

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that otherwise you would not see[br]covered in the mass media.

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So to use a fancy word,[br]this is a synergistic

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- or another phrase -

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mutually catalytic development

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in which the social media contribute,[br]and the mass media contribute.

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There's a transnational[br]aspect to this as well,

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and obviously, whoever is elected[br]President of the United States

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is by definition --

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that event by definition is something[br]that has international import.

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So in fact Romney's 47% remark

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was not only seen by Americans[br]who voted in the election,

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but was seen by people[br]all over the world.

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Marshall McLuhan, back in 1962,

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observed that new electronic media

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were turning the world[br]into a global village,

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and I'm sure many of you have[br]heard that term "global village,"

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but back in 1962,

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the environment was really

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neither global nor a village,

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because back in 1962

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and what got McLuhan to make[br]that point in the first place,

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what you had were national audiences[br]watching television programs

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there was no international[br]communication really.

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The first international satellite Telstar[br]was launched in that period of time,

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but it didn't really have any programming[br]that was conveying to the world.

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So it was not yet global[br]nor was it a village,

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because in a normal village

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the citizens of that village[br]can talk to one another

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- just like you can talk to each other -

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and can move a conversation along,

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can question information[br]not just receive information.

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On traditional television,

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there is a one-way communication

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in which we are receivers of information,

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but we have no way to really question[br]or even comment upon the information.

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All that changes[br]when we get into social media.

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So if you look at videos on YouTube,

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some of them have thousands of comments,

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and I always think, when I see that,

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that, "Ah, here is democracy at work,"

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because here in these comments,[br]you see people

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not only receiving news[br]but sending back information,

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sending back commentary.

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So the global village that McLuhan[br]talked about in 1962

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was really a metaphor back then[br]or a sign pointing to the future.

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I often like to say that McLuhan[br]was not writing about his time,

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he was writing about our time:

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not because he was clairvoyant,[br]but because he understood

0:10:07.540,0:10:11.968
with such depth how human beings[br]wanted to communicate

0:10:11.969,0:10:16.049
that he realized we would be[br]moving in a direction

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in which we did have a village.

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And so, Romney's remarks were indeed

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truly seen by a global audience.

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Let me just give you another example,[br]a very different example.

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Occupy Wall Street --

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which was a a global movement

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that coincided to some extent[br]with the Arab Spring

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and let me tell you[br]about one person in particular

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who in my view did one of the best jobs

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reporting what was happening[br]in Occupy Wall Street.

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We're talking about[br]something that happened

0:11:02.009,0:11:04.377
a year or two ago.

0:11:05.264,0:11:08.139
I was teaching a class

0:11:08.140,0:11:13.659
at Fordham University in the Fall of 2011

0:11:13.660,0:11:17.218
when Occupy Wall Street was going[br]strong in New York City,

0:11:17.219,0:11:19.038
around the country, around the world

0:11:19.369,0:11:23.908
I went back to my office,[br]and I looked at my email.

0:11:23.909,0:11:30.063
And right before I was about to sign off[br]and shut down my computer and drive home,

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I looked one more time at my Twitter.

0:11:34.119,0:11:37.835
I saw her just a little tweet which said

0:11:38.420,0:11:43.278
Tim Pool giving live coverage

0:11:43.279,0:11:48.668
to an Occupy Wall Street protest[br]that was going on at Baruch College.

0:11:48.669,0:11:53.510
Baruch College, if you don't know, is part[br]of the City University of New York System

0:11:54.329,0:11:59.208
down in the a East Twenties in Manhattan.

0:11:59.209,0:12:06.040
I clicked on the link on YouTube[br]and pretty quickly I was brought to a page

0:12:06.054,0:12:12.199
where there was live streaming coverage,[br]literally, of that demonstration.

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And I was able to see that in real time.

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It would be hours before[br]any of the mass media picked that up.

0:12:21.970,0:12:23.953
And, as was the case with YouTube,

0:12:23.954,0:12:27.528
there were people who were commenting[br]on what they were seeing:

0:12:27.529,0:12:33.092
literally, the police moving in, pushing[br]demonstrators out of the way,

0:12:33.093,0:12:38.569
in my view, illegally, because it was[br]violating their First Amendment rights.

0:12:38.584,0:12:41.502
But all that was actually shown

0:12:41.595,0:12:45.717
in real time through Tim Pool's reporting.

0:12:46.040,0:12:52.164
And it was seen internationally, literally[br]in real time, through his reporting.

0:12:53.279,0:12:55.768
And by the way Tim Pool[br]continued to do that,

0:12:55.769,0:13:01.599
he had a New Year's Eve live feed

0:13:01.600,0:13:05.366
of another series[br]of Occupy Wall Street events.

0:13:05.367,0:13:09.097
It shows you[br]what a great party person I am.

0:13:10.357,0:13:12.418
It's amazing my wife puts up with me,

0:13:12.419,0:13:16.749
because that's what I was doing at least[br]for an hour or two on New Year's Eve,

0:13:16.750,0:13:20.239
looking at Tim Pool's live coverage.

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But that's extremely significant,

0:13:22.113,0:13:25.907
and by the way,[br]it has legal import as well,

0:13:26.477,0:13:31.436
because the New York City police[br]arrested many people

0:13:31.437,0:13:35.717
that they said[br]were violating this or that law.

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In most cases, on no evidence,

0:13:40.157,0:13:43.338
and in one case, I was very happy to see,

0:13:43.339,0:13:46.518
the case was thrown out of court,

0:13:46.519,0:13:51.147
the person who had been arrested[br]by the NYPD was found not guilty

0:13:51.783,0:13:58.638
and the reason was Tim Pool[br]had been there with his little phone

0:13:58.639,0:14:00.498
-- he just uses a smartphone

0:14:00.499,0:14:04.178
hooked up to an internet connection[br]to report what happened

0:14:04.179,0:14:07.726
at another event in which someone[br]had been arrested

0:14:07.727,0:14:13.158
for breaking through a police line[br]which in fact never happened.

0:14:13.159,0:14:18.600
So this has profound[br]legal consequences as well.

0:14:19.370,0:14:22.819
But let me put[br]some of this in historical context,

0:14:22.820,0:14:26.189
and end with a little trip[br]through history,

0:14:26.209,0:14:29.751
just so you have an idea of why I think

0:14:29.859,0:14:33.558
this is such a path-breaking development

0:14:33.559,0:14:36.149
in our communication history.

0:14:36.150,0:14:41.215
Once upon a time, a long long time ago,

0:14:41.216,0:14:45.099
we're talking about thousands[br]and thousands and thousands of years ago,

0:14:45.100,0:14:48.608
the only way[br]we communicated was by talking,

0:14:48.609,0:14:51.636
and in that environment[br]as limited as it was,

0:14:51.637,0:14:55.333
because you couldn't communicate[br]beyond your physical surroundings,

0:14:55.334,0:14:58.962
anybody could talk,[br]and anyone could respond.

0:14:58.963,0:15:03.572
And then, we moved[br]into a written environment,

0:15:03.573,0:15:09.229
in which the information[br]was saved, preserved

0:15:09.230,0:15:14.259
in scrolls, in parchment,[br]papyrus, and eventually paper;

0:15:14.260,0:15:18.338
and it was the same thing:[br]anyone could write, anyone could read,

0:15:18.339,0:15:20.707
but very limited distribution.

0:15:21.889,0:15:24.979
In the Renaissance, in the 1450s,

0:15:24.980,0:15:28.049
Gutenberg, as we all know,[br]introduced the printing press.

0:15:28.050,0:15:31.298
Suddenly, millions and millions[br]of people could read

0:15:31.299,0:15:34.438
what anyone had written.

0:15:34.439,0:15:37.098
But now, a problem was introduced:

0:15:37.099,0:15:43.260
who was to decide who would do[br]that dissemination?

0:15:43.780,0:15:47.108
An editor or a publisher had to decide.

0:15:47.109,0:15:51.488
And so, what was set up[br]was this profound asymmetry

0:15:51.489,0:15:57.288
of who knows how many ideas,[br]how many written works were out there,

0:15:57.289,0:15:59.477
could have been out there?

0:15:59.478,0:16:03.889
But only a small fraction of them[br]ever made it into print.

0:16:04.529,0:16:06.506
In the 20th century,

0:16:06.507,0:16:10.508
we had the introduction[br]of electronic broadcasting media:

0:16:10.509,0:16:13.756
this improved greatly the dissemination.

0:16:13.759,0:16:18.249
Millions of people could hear the news,[br]see the news instantly.

0:16:18.250,0:16:19.940
Extraordinary!

0:16:19.941,0:16:25.280
But once again, who decided[br]what would be in that news?

0:16:25.281,0:16:29.028
The answer was again: a producer,

0:16:29.029,0:16:33.648
a television production crew, an editor.

0:16:33.649,0:16:38.406
And who knows how many stories[br]were left uncovered?

0:16:39.417,0:16:45.178
It was not until the Internet[br]that this began to change.

0:16:45.179,0:16:49.618
There actually was one little important[br]development before the Internet:

0:16:49.619,0:16:51.619
the rise of photocopying.

0:16:51.620,0:16:55.848
McLuhan again said the Xerox turns[br]every author into a publisher.

0:16:55.849,0:16:59.998
Unfortunately, Xerox manuscripts[br]don't look like books,

0:16:59.999,0:17:02.819
but again McLuhan was onto something

0:17:02.820,0:17:07.617
because you didn't need anyone's[br]permission to Xerox your manuscript.

0:17:08.358,0:17:10.490
But that is really small potatoes,

0:17:10.491,0:17:14.402
compared to the power[br]that's now in all of your hands;

0:17:14.403,0:17:17.363
each and every one of you,[br]you have an idea,

0:17:17.364,0:17:21.150
you have an opinion about something,[br]you see something that's happening,

0:17:21.151,0:17:24.928
you don't need anyone's permission,

0:17:24.929,0:17:29.386
you can upload it to your YouTube channel,[br]you can put it on your blog,

0:17:29.387,0:17:33.542
and you, like this bartender in Florida

0:17:33.674,0:17:37.932
who reported Mitt Romney's 47% comment,

0:17:37.933,0:17:41.728
you can change the world.

0:17:41.729,0:17:43.026
Thank you.

0:17:43.027,0:17:44.656
(Applause)