One of the winners of the January 25 uprisings in Egypt — besides, of course, the people of Egypt — has been Andy Carvin. NPR’s social media guru has been doing an exemplary job of curating social media to report on a weeks-long protest that seems to have transformed, today, into a democratic revolution.
Carvin’s work cultivating sources and sharing their updates has turned curation into an art form, and it’s provided a hint of what news can look like in an increasingly networked media environment. “It really has stood out as an alternative model of news,” says Kinsey Wilson, NPR’s senior vice president and general manager of digital media. It’s also led to earnest talk of a Pulitzer for curation (with Carvin, of course, as the prize’s first recipient) and to equally earnest discussions, among Jeff Jarvis and others, of translating Carvin’s curatorial prowess into a full-fledged business model.
I have posted a lot in the last 2 years about Andy. Some of you think I must be a close friend or a colleague. We only know each other peripherally.
My comments about him have been made only because I saw that he was special.
Now we all know this!
It is now clear to all who care about the future of media that Andy has pulled off something historic and special. He has on his own redefined how to cover a major event.
Just as nothing will be the same in Egypt or in any state that does not listen, nothing will be the same in any newsroom. The old ways got killed and Andy was one of the Knights who speared the dragon.
