Hand it to us

Those of us who are abandoning Journalism 1.0 are feeling more powerful than the "news hounds" addicted to news in print and broadcast formats. Here's some of our experiences that have convinced us we are not incapable as consumers of spoon-fed news:

1. When we have a universal remote control in our hands, we discover that some devices in our midst respond. We get results by "power on" or "power off". We make a difference by changing the channel and/or volume level. We may even have a "menu button" which gives us control over when we watch something after it's been broadcast. Once we're watching a "time shifted" program, we can upgrade our experience with pause, step, scan and skip commands that get followed obediently.
2. When we're playing games with elaborate score keeping, there's a dashboard full of indicators about our own game play. We can utilize it's continual updates to make more or different progress based on the indicators we're tracking. We can benefit from the monitoring of every variable in real time to catch our mistakes, question our assumptions and change strategies. We can refine our approach to better balance conflicting objectives or make different tradeoffs. We can gain experiences where we then feel more capable and able to rely on our own judgment.
3. When we have online access, we can search and find what we're looking for. We can go shopping without much difficulty locating exactly what we had in mind. We can communicate with others and check what messages have come in. We can upload our own creations for others to experience. We can monitor events around the world and next door. We can feel connected, resourceful and privileged in a world that pays us attention and responds to our requests.
4. When we're loading up our handheld, we can dictate what we will have access to wherever we go with it. We can create playlists of particular music we enjoy differently from anyone else. We can load up on podcasts and videos that suit our own taste. We can share what we've put on our handheld with others who do the same with us. We can take in the content we're carrying around when we're free to tune out the world and tune into it.

All these experiences give us a perspective that says: "don't tell me: what I enjoy, what's important to me, or what I should know". We're operating under the impression that we're in control of our experiences, powerful players in a fascinating game and successfully connecting with whatever offers value to us right now. From this perspective, Journalism 1.0 seems like:

• what happens when the batteries in the remote control are dead
• what it would be like to play a game where the dashboard got updated once an hour or once a day
• what online shopping would turn into if searching only delivered paid links to sites that with no variety or selection
• what frustrations we'd feel if someone else loaded up our handheld "for us"

What we're looking for in Journalism 2.0 is continuity with our experiences of being powerful in these ways we are in control while viewing, gaming, searching, shopping or loading up a handheld. We looking for news providers to "hand it to us".