I was birthed into the media universe as a 17 year old boy with a rock and roll radio show on the campus station the summer before I entered the university. 27 years, eight radio stations, one television production company, and a PR gig later I continue to contribute to the voices, but this time via a computer on my lap with more horsepower than the whole mainframe at that university years ago, and an ability to talk to the planet as opposed to nine square miles. Dorothy, we’re not at WKRP any more!

I’m intrigued by this brave new media world.  There are multiple paradoxes present that sometimes are difficult to get your arms around. Back in college we talked about the “gatekeepers,” those news directors, journalists, and publishers who decided for the masses what news was.  Now with blogs, YouTube, podcasts, and MySpace/Facebook, you are bypassing the gate, going to fellow readers with your news and views. It would seem that this democratization of media is more like real life.

However, I think that there continues to be a pecking order and certainly voices that are silent. For example, I don’t think that the American poor are well represented on Web 2.0. Blogs I’m exposed to are from mostly lefty, college-educated, middle-classed white people with a computer and Blogger account. The blogging heroes to many are Anna Marie Cox, Media Matters, and the foil-headed contributors to the Daily Kos. Of course there are many conservative voices, mine included, taking advantage of the space and we have our lions, too. But if comments and hits are the currency of the new media, there definitely exists the “haves” and the “have nots.”

I am grateful for (and a little nervous about) this outlet where I can try to make a cogent argument for a position and have maybe several dozen people read what I have to say. But what is it going to take for the disenfranchised; the poor in spirit; the meek to raise their voices? I’m not talking about hearing from some political advocacy group trying to force the government to redistribute someone else’s wealth. I mean let’s hear the true life stories of those in our country that live in the margins, between the coasts, and under the radar.