[MUSIC]
BARATUNDE THURSTON: So here is the beautiful thing.
The internet gives everybody a voice.
And here is the terrible thing.
The internet gives everybody a voice.
[MUSIC]
For much of history, we didn't have control over our own representation.
Especially our media representation.
Democracy or no democracy, there is a limited—there had been—a very limited access to the microphones
and the cameras and the distribution systems and the projectors so the story of, for example,
black people generally not told by black people.
Told by a handful of folks who did not necessary have black people's interests in their heart.
The realm that we're in now of internet and the fusion of technology in media, tears down
so many of those remaining walls.
At least in theory and often in practice such that everybody can tell their own story.
That doesn't move the owness on those with more power and more access, more distribution
to do a better job.
And for those of who care to advocate and try to be a part of that system and make that
judgement better, but it also provides an ultimate path and possibly some competition
to say, well I'm gonna go take my story over here.
I'm gonna put it out as a web series.
I'm gonna do a podcast.
I'm gonna find the community of people that is looking for something else, not already
represented and cater to that and work with that, so for me, that's been a part of the
process, but that possibility of telling your own story has made much more likely in our
internet sort of digital media era than even 20 years ago and certainly 200.
The internet gives everybody a voice.
And not everybody should be heard to the same volume.
There's a cost to all that.
There's a cost to sifting through a world full of infinite content across space and
time accessible in a moment in the palm of your hand.
Where's the editor for that?
Who's the producer for that?
Who's the curator?
Where's the judgement, discernment, and sort of value designation in a world that's just
sort of flooded with thoughts, many of them heavily uninformed, some of them truly idiotic
and hateful, so we have to balance I think first our expectations for this new world
will bring and then the realities of like how we navigate it.
But the first step is understanding that a lot of the value that even people like me
espouse is potential value.
We're slowly getting there but I don't think we're as close as we'll need to be to restore
some sanity to the way we handle media.
When you think about what really good comedy often does, is it helps you recognize a truth
that maybe you weren't aware of, so as applied to a world full of overwhelming and questionable
information, there is a theoretical role for a comic voice to help you cut through the
noise and I'd like to point out what's really going on, what's up, what's true, what's valuable.
I think there's a role to go even further when considering that humor is essentially
human emotion and act.
The reaction to it.
The idea of physical laughter is a moment of vulnerability.
You have physically let go of yourself and allowed an external force to trigger this
really base human thing.
And when we are so dominated by algorithms and software and data points, being reminded
of that humanity, comedians, artists in general, but in especially comedians can contribute
to.
Hey, y'all.
I'm Baratunde Thurston and you're watching Epiphany on THNKR!