User-generated content, aggregators, viral are centuries-old concepts

John L. Robinson is a former old-media “reporter, city editor, editorial page editor, team management coach and, beginning in January 1999, editor of the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C.”

Despite his old-school credentials, his blog is a refreshing deconstruction of old-journalism myths that are often deployed in favour of the “journalism as a priesthood” vision of gatekeeper news reporting.

Today, John notes user-generated content has been part of journalism since 1690, the first magazines in the American colonies were aggregating and curating content from the home country, and content has been going viral since the Ninety-Five Theses in 1517.

Take a read of his post and the next time a newspaper editor is complaining about these “new” concepts, remind them “What goes around comes around