Used to be that the information and data gathered by the media was filtered, edited, weighed for entertainment/newsworthiness and then disseminated to the masses. The advent of the internet has started to change that whole process. Newspapers, print media, radio, television, and all of the old school media has had to compete with the new bully on the block aka the world wide web. The rules have shifted in the favor of the many. The internet is a true democracy in the sense that no one has complete authority or control. Anyone can post a comment, website, opinion, wikipedia entry, etc. The flow of information (and misinformation) can no longer be packaged into nice little consumer boxes.

Old school media has resisted changing mainly because no one knows how. Crowdsourcing is the new how. Hyper-local information where ordinary people can find out what they want about their neighborhood. Do you want to inform everyone about your kids little league batting average? Post it. Your local newspaper website (if they are wanting to survive this new onlaught of media) will be happy to give you a section where you can let everyone know what is going on in you hyper local area. A place where you can go and read about what is going on in your area. How much your neighbour sold his house for or when the people around the corner got their lost dog back. The crowd makes the news and the crowd reads it.

Professional journalism is going out the window. They shot themselves in the foot many years ago by relying too much on the AP wire. Irregardless, this was inevitable. Wikipidia has made knowledge open source and now media is trying to adapt by making news crowd source. It is all exactly as it should be.