Brian Gongol

The present management at the Tribune Company is doing a lot to change WGN, a radio station that has been a heritage powerhouse for almost as long as commercial radio has existed. Sadly, it's demoralizing the staff and burning out a reputation that's been finely cared-for through almost a century. People care about their institutions, and they're willing to forgive a lot if the caretakers appear to be taking care. But they can be easily upset by carelessness.


The concept of microblogging has its place -- users can share pithy anecdotes and have interesting exchanges -- but the concept also demands a lot of attention from those who really get into it. And the problem, as designer Mark Boulton points out, is that "when you live on a diet of 100 characters or so, you get get thin, jittery and unhappy". Moreover, the content found on Twitter -- such as it is -- is disproportionately driven by links to the extremely transitory, like gossip, endless self-reference, vapid self-help quotations, pop entertainment, and gadgetry-related news. It's hard to fill one's brain with substantial material while being bombarded by the transitory.
