rising tides, ferocious waves

You might remember that last week (below) I gave you a peek through the door of the Bryant Park Library into my old-school (microfiche!) research via iPhone. The week before that (further below), I was indulging in magazines and martinis, considering what the future of journalism might hold for yours truly. Now, with CUNY's J-school graduation just two weeks away (!), David Carr gave a quick synopsis of what he perceives to be the "Fall and Rise of Media" in today's Media Equation column (click.)

Mr. Black on the ferocious NZ waves, 2008

When I finished it, I exclaimed aloud, "F-yes! Thank god I read that to the end!" It was this bit that got me:

For every kid that I bump into who is wandering the media industry looking for an entrance that closed some time ago, I come across another who is a bundle of ideas, energy and technological mastery. The next wave is not just knocking on doors, but seeking to knock them down.

Somewhere down in the Flatiron, out in Brooklyn, over in Queens or up in Harlem, cabals of bright young things are watching all the disruption with more than an academic interest. Their tiny netbooks and iPhones, which serve as portals to the cloud, contain more informational firepower than entire newsrooms possessed just two decades ago. And they are ginning content from their audiences in the form of social media or finding ways of making ambient information more useful. They are jaded in the way youth requires, but have the confidence that is a gift of their age as well.

For them, New York is not an island sinking, but one that is rising on a fresh, ferocious wave.

One hell of a kicker, right? That's us, knocking down doors with our iPhones (or respectfully photographing them at the Bryant Park Library.) Graduation, here we come. Now back to work.