They surprised everyone
There’s always a lot of hype in the last few weeks of December over who will be named Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’ and so designated on its annual cover story around this time. I’ve seen cable tv news doing teasers on this, with a montage of headshots of Condoleeza Rice, President Bush, Hugo Chavez….the whole gamut of possibilities. And yet, Time always manages to surprise.
The news folks who like to discuss these things overlooked one person.
You.
You were named Time magazine “Person of the Year” on Saturday for the explosive growth and influence of user-generated Internet content such as blogs, video-file sharing site YouTube and social network MySpace.
“For seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, Time’s Person of the Year for 2006 is you,” the magazine’s Lev Grossman wrote.
The magazine has put a mirror on the cover of its “Person of the Year” issue, released on Monday, “because it literally reflects the idea that you, not us, are transforming the information age,” Editor Richard Stengel said in a statement.
This is a huge awakening, folks, and reflects very well on Time’s respect for “alternative media” and the power of the people, I think. For them to say that “you, not us, are transforming the information age” is a very, very big statement. Time does respect the movement of immediate and incisively accurate information over the internet and the air waves, and I’m very gratified to see this honor they are paying to all the folks involved in that exchange.
Take note:
You beat out candidates including Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, China’s President Hu Jintao, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and James Baker, the former U.S. Secretary of State who led Washington’s bipartisan Iraq Study Group.
It’s always a world player, of some great import.
Time has been naming its person of the year since 1927 and the tradition has become the source of speculation every year, as well as controversy over unpopular choices such as Adolf Hitler in 1938 and Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.
The aim is to pick “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse.”
And Time so insightfully realized that among all the major news stories of the year that were important, the bottom line, fundamental element that was key to them all was you — the folks.
“It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes,” said Grossman, Time’s technology writer and book critic.
I’m glad they realized the “for nothing” part, because that’s the reality for a lot of important, influential, alternative media today.
“The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web,” he said. “It’s a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter.”
MySpace — bought by media giant News Corp. last year for $580 million — has more than 130 million users around the world and adds around 300,000 members a day, while YouTube — bought by Internet search leader Google Inc. last month for $1.65 billion — gets about 100 million daily views.
“These blogs and videos bring events to the rest of us in ways that are often more immediate and authentic than traditional media,” Stengel said.
I’m really glad they appreciate that truth. It’s about time.
