I haven’t been blogging that long compared to many older bloggers, but in the ten months I have been doing this I have picked up on a thing or three. And its clear that the nature of “new media” whether it be blogging, wikis, podcasting, or social networking is not as clear-cut as the truths distributed by the high priests of the Cluetrain Manifesto, nor, on the other hand, the Establishment Apologist Rantings (or, the anti-anti-establish rantings, if you will) of Andrew Keen.

For example, is this new new world governed by total egalitarianism? Are we really living in a wonderful utopia where all voice are given equal thought as they ought to be as determined by their merit? Are markets really conversations, immune to, and laughing at businesses?

Well, it’d be nice if it was, but the answer to all of these questions is “not really”. While personal publishing tools allow anyone to start writing and publishing their thoughts, as evidenced by a recent blogging dust up, there is still a natural heirarchy in the currency of attention. Its partially dominated by early adopters of the medium, but it exists as naturally as fact as the sun rises in the east. Are blogs, wikis and podcasts conversations? Sure. Are they outside, immune to, or laughing at businesses? The answer to this is a resounding “no”, and can be summarized in one word: “PayPerPost”.

We don’t all use it, we’re definitely not all fans of it, but this company seems to encapsulate the zeitgeist that there are bloggers who are willing to sell their opinions for a price. You can rant all you like about how that’s not actually how it works; however, when you are paid for your opinion, good or bad, there cannot but be some kind of influence. And in this new media world we live in, bloggers are proud of their closer connections to industry; on one hand it allows them to get the scoop earlier and faster than traditional outlets. On the other hand, with appropriate disclosure, it seems like all kinds of conflicts of interest are acceptable.

Is there truth to the flipside? Is this just a cacophony of the unwashed, the uneducated, and the uncultured? Is mob mentality the rule of the day? Isn’t this just just an attempt at getting inward looking narcissistic drivel — and attitudes — to flourish? Again, the answer is “not really”.

The value in blogging, wikis, or podcasting is relative. Stuff that many people would label as self-important drivel may be correct; on the other hand, the authors of that self-important drivel don’t care — and more to the point, haven’t written or published it for the purposes of real public consumption. The ecosystem of new media is self regulating in many ways, as it ignores things that are without use to it, and promotes the things that are. For example, self-important drivel isn’t all that easy to find via search engines, but stuff that is often genuinely useful (to greater or lesser degrees) often is thanks to the other lingua franca of new media: links.

And this very blog has been the kind recipient of a whole ‘lot of links over the past ten months.

The nature of this new world of self-publishing, however, is that while there *is* a natural “attention” hierarchy that is naturally reinforcing, it is virtually frictionless to get started, as barriers around cost and ease of use are virtually nil. Poeple who have something genuinely interesting to say, or genuinely new or worthwhile to report in all of its relativistic wonder *can* get heard. Whether its the whistleblower who has to go on YouTube to make his point about Navy spending indiscretions, or podcasters getting “scouted” into mainstream media thanks to their self-directed efforts, or musicians eschewing traditional channels of distribution, yet still succeeding and selling records, successful examples of the relatively egalitarian nature of new media abound.

The truth and reality of new media is somewhere in between the Utopian ideals of the Cluetrain Manifesto and the anti-anti-Establishment rantings of Andrew Keen. We have tools to exist in a virtual ecosystem which is a meritocracy of opinion, although this has its limits and boundaries. Its an ecosystem which is prone to mob mentality and flash condemnation — but its also self-regulating environment, where all facts and opinions are naturally checked and checked again.

Furthermore, stuff that is truly important does float to the top – and does so quickly — because it doesn’t have to penetrate layers of entrenched self-reinforcing institutionalized bureaucracy, no matter what its form. Self-important drivel exists as well, but since its only written for a tiny audience anyway, its largely irrelevant to any real discourse on the issue. Anonymous instigators of abusive, puerile and hateful commentary exist as they always have. But like the pre-Mosaic era, they’re largely ignored.

The ecosystem of blogs, wikis, social networks, and podcasts is not a perfect system. But its a damn sight better than what existed before. There now exists a means for individuals that want to be heard and who have something worthwhile to say, to actually have a better chance of having it heard than ever before. On the other hand, its not a zero-sum game either. People and institutions who feel threatened by these changes need to take heart its greatest advantages, and realize that while we are still all trying to figure out what It All Means, there is more benefit to taking part than it is to deny its existence, or worse yet, take cheap shots from the sidelines.