Aspen – Identifying how new media either impedes or furthers democracy was the topic of the first day of discussions at the Aspen Institute’s Forum on Communications and Society.
More than 70 heavy hitters in world media, technology, government and academia are gathered here for three days, debating and working on recommendations on how new and old media formats together can strengthen society.
“Business models have to figure out how to fit into this new technology,” said Michael Eisner, former Disney chairman and chief executive, during the opening panel discussion on how new media is influencing old media and society.
Eisner currently heads the Tornante Co., which invests in media and entertainment firms.
Much of the debate centered on traditional print and broadcast media and their continued relevance to consumers seeking out niche content on the Web.
“The debate (between old and new media) has to be over ,” said Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor of the Huffington Post, an online news website.
She said people and business should not have to choose between old and new media but should have the best of both worlds and “embrace the hybrid future.”
As Web-based video content becomes almost indistinguishable from television content, participants raised the question of whether government could seek to regulate Internet content – similar to the way it imposes decency rules on network TV and radio – without damping free speech.
Letting sites like YouTube show user videos of violence going on in places such as Iraq is a murky issue. While the videos may be harmful and offensive to some, limiting them may stifle free speech, said Madeleine Albright, former U.S. secretary of state and Monday’s keynote speaker.
“Terrorist extremists are using the media themselves. The more information that’s out there about how evil they are … it’s feeding their ego and recruitment of new people,” she said. There’s “ambivalence on the war on terror and extremism and whether we’re giving them gratification.”
In Europe, offensive and harmful speech is regulated based on content, regardless of whether it’s on TV, online or on a cellphone, said Viviane Reding, the European Union’s commissioner for information society and media.
“Europe’s very mobile. We try to be neutral in terms of platform,” she said. “We are much more relaxed than Americans. For us, freedom of expression is always first.”
For more than 10 years, the Aspen Institute has held its FOCAS conference in August, usually with 25 invitees sitting around one round table for three days. This is the first year the conference is expanded to certain numbers of the public and the press.
Round-table participants are asked to meet in working groups and develop recommendations that can be put into practice. The Aspen Institute will release three reports following the conference, which ends Wednesday.
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson can be reached at 303-954-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
