Week 4 -- Poell & and van Dijck Reading

This week's reading came from Poell & and van Dijck and one of the first points in the article that I thought were interesting along with introducing the concepts acceleration, and personalization was the idea of alternative journalism. I had never heard of this concept but essentially a lot of what is online could be considered alternative journalism when it pertains to a cause since online spaces largely account for ordinary people’s opinions. Alternative journalism relates to both acceleration and personalization since these concepts have come out of the legitimization of alternative journalism in this day and age. This cultural shift also made me consider the weight of an ordinary person's opinion in previous times, or now. I would say this is difficult to gauge because if someone was on the right platform, had people’s attention, or an intense fandom in previous times that could spark a whole movement. But today since we are inundated with opinions and causes, even though one opinion means a lot, a single person’s opinion also does not mean as much due to the perverseness of opinions.

But what I would also say is that acceleration and personalization both lend themselves to heightening any one person’s opinion depending on a situation. One person's opinion can become substantially more important if they are reporting on an event in real time, although they are ordinary person. And same for observable personalization online in light of a cause, because people appreciate someone being personable online. So acceleration and personalization are two ways that you can become distinguished online which is what I found most interesting about learning and observing these concepts.