Sorry for breaking up my predicted posts, but I felt a need to post about this for some reason.
I read Penny Arcade, a web comic about video games that is clever and hysterical, but also crass and violent. I don't play video games regularly and haven't since I was in high school, but I have friends who do. Anyway, the writers of the strip tend to get on their soapbox about how the media portrays the effects of violent video games in an unfair and biased light. I'm not quite sure what I believe about this particular issue, but I can tell you what I do believe in: the power of amateur, personal web media (like blogs, web comics, del.icio.us tags, flickr, whatever) to change the face of media and do good things.
Case in point. This story ran on CNN three days ago. Kid does despicable act, violent video games are the culprit. Not unusual. Gabe, the artist at Penny Arcade, goes off. Also not unusual. Two days later, Gabe posts an e-mail from someone intimately connected with the case, who also happens to be a fan of the site. In it, she tells her side, and perhaps what's closest to the truth -- closer than the CNN story and closer than Gabe's rant. Millions of people will see her words now, thanks to PA's wide ranging audience.
This wouldn't have happened ten years ago. Fascinating.