On Wednesday, I attended a summit on change, called "The Power to Change the World", with a subhead I didn't notice until later, "Celebrating 100 years of UPI". Apparently, UPI is looking for its digital future and brought together a collection of very cool people on the eighth floor of DC's Ronald Reagan building to discuss how journalism and media are or can change the world, and is there an ROI in change. Some seriously smart, insightful and influential people attend the all-day session from the founder of Fast Company to someone from the state department's blog. If anyone learned anything new or had a new insight, please let me know about it.
Several things irritated me, including the conceit by some that the human being is changed by new media and that those using new media are somehow superior to those inflicting "old" media on the ignorant populous of the world. Get a grip. It's the same world, same people. New media is a tool. It can be used for evil just as much as it can be used for good. And there are a lot of people who do NOT believe in justice and equality for all peoples, as one speaker averred.
Add it up: a bunch of smart people in a building named after Ronald Reagan at an event sponsored by the Moonies' UPI. What did I expect?
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