Person of the Year? It's you
Reuters
Published: 18 Dec 2006 09:30 GMT
You were named Time Magazine "Person of the Year" on Saturday for
the explosive growth and influence of user-generated internet
content from such sources as blogs, video-sharing site YouTube and
social-networking site MySpace.com.
"For seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and
framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and
beating the pros at their own game, Time's Person of the Year for
2006 is you," the magazine's Lev Grossman wrote.
The magazine has put a mirror on the cover of its "Person of the
Year" issue, released on Monday, "because it literally reflects the
idea that you, not us, are transforming the Information Age",
editor Richard Stengel said in a statement.
You beat out candidates including Iran's President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, China's President Hu Jintao, North Korean leader Kim
Jong Il and James Baker, the former US Secretary of State who led
Washington's bipartisan Iraq Study Group.
Time has been naming its "Person of the Year" since 1927 and the
tradition has become the source of speculation every year, as well
as controversy over unpopular choices such as Adolf Hitler in 1938
and Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.
The aim is to pick "the person or persons who most affected the
news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was
important about the year, for better or for worse".
Grossman said the creators and consumers of user-generated internet
sites showed a community and collaboration on a scale never seen
before.
"It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one
another for nothing and how that will not only change the world,
but also change the way the world changes," said Grossman, Time's
technology writer and book critic.
"The tool that makes this possible is the world wide web," he said.
"It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of
millions of people and making them matter."
MySpace bought by media giant News Corp. last year for $580m
(£296m) has more than 130 million users around the world and adds
around 300,000 members a day, while YouTube bought by internet
search leader Google in October for $1.65bn gets about 100
million daily views.
"These blogs and videos bring events to the rest of us in ways that
are often more immediate and authentic than traditional media,"
Stengel said.
"Journalists once had the exclusive province of taking people to
places they'd never been. But now a mother in Baghdad with a
videophone can let you see a roadside bombing, or a patron in a
nightclub can show you a racist rant by a famous comedian," he
said.
Time's 2005 "Person of the Year" was Bill Gates, his wife
Melinda and Irish rocker Bono for being good Samaritans, while the
2004 choice was President Bush. In 2003 "The American Soldier"
graced the cover in a year when US troops invaded
Iraq.
