The power of Blackberry

ATHENS, GA— As she sits in the front row in the University of Georgia’s Chapel before the 2^nd Annual Peabody-Smithgall Lecture, Pat Mitchell types away on her Blackberry. Mitchell, a university alumna, was the featured speaker on Thursday and, ironically, addressed the audience about the media saturated world we live in today.

Mitchell spoke about the power of cell phones in the “media aided” world in which we live. According to Mitchell, cell phones cannot be censored by the government or password protected like the internet. She drew on examples from China, Afghanistan, and India, where cell phones are not an everyday practice.

Mitchell drew on an experience she had in China where the government was trying to keep citizens away from a gathering in which she and other members of the media were speaking. The Chinese government monitors the internet, but there is no way that they can possibly intercept millions of texts. The citizens had used Twitter, an online social networking and texting service, to send text messages to inform each other of the event.

According to Mitchell, the Afghani government used cell phones to urge citizens to register and to vote in a presidential election. They also used them to disseminate health information to women. Because of this digital campaign, 40 percent more women registered and voted and the childbirth death rate fell.

In India, Hindus are sending prayers via text messages. This practice has reduced the number of stampedes and mobs, according to Mitchell.

On U.S. soil, cell phones are an entirely different phenomena. Mitchell drew on personal experiences, like lying in bed with her husband while they are both simultaneously replying to emails on their Blackberrys. She also pointed out that 680 million text messaged votes were sent in for American Idol-type shows this past season alone. She cited the power cell phones had in this year’s U.S. Presidential election. According to Mitchell, 46 percent of Americans have used the internet and/or cell phones for campaign information. And, one cannot forget about candidate Obama’s use of text messages to reveal his vice presidential pick.

Mitchell is currently the president and CEO for the Paley Center for Media in New York. She was formally the president and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). She has won several awards and was just inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame Tuesday night. Her love for media and her optimism for its future was a major theme of her speech.

Mitchell spoke of the “generational divide” she sees between “digital natives,” who are those “born with a cell phone in their hand” and “digital immigrants,” who are never going to be as good at multi-tasking and cling to linear thinking. She is optimistic that both digital natives and digital immigrants can live side by side, however.

She urged the next generation to open their minds and feel comfortable with the media and realize that “there is no such thing as a U.S. community.” The power of the internet, television, and cell phones has made the dissemination of cultures more feasible, according to Mitchell. She pointed out websites like Youtube.com, a site where a user can post and view videos and that did not exist two years ago, now receives 240 million hits per day. She also said that by the end of the year, people will spend 11 hours of everyday with some kind of media.

Mitchell sees a weakening in journalism, especially in the lack of investigative reporting. She is also disappointed that Americans are less informed than ever before. However, she is optimistic that media will never take over or replace community. She said, “We need community. We want to experience media together still.”