San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll

says there is a simple reason the mainstream media hates the Net: it's infatuated with it. Carroll, who has moderated the media conference on The Well for years, says old media feels threatened by new media on several levels. It's an obvious economic threat, but it's interactivity threatens the traditional control of content. It can cheapen the value of published words.

Even so, it currently fills an important niche in the media formula. Once upon a time, he says, hippies plus anything equaled news. Today, it's the Internet. Internet plus love, Internet plus government, Internet plus fear ... it all adds up to news.

Paul Schindler talked with Jon Carroll about new media and old media. (Recorded July 21, 1997.)

» read interview
» hear interview

Job
Newspaper Columnist, Cyberspace Pioneer

Home
Oakland, Calif.

Education
University of California for 1.6 years, where he majored in experimental chemistry and biology in a non-classroom setting.

Carreer
San Francisco Chronicle, then Rolling Stone, 1970, assistant editor. Rags, 1971, editor. Oui, 1972, editor. Village Voice, 1974, West Coast Editor. WomenSports magazine, consulting editor. New West magazine, 1978, editor. National Magazine Award, 1979. First Chronicle column, October 1982.

Personal
Married, two daughters

Message of Pessimism
"Everything you know is wrong."

Message of Hope
"100 years, all new people."

Why I got on the Internet
"Because people said it was fun."

Recently Published
The article that got him invited onto this feature, about Internet Bashing by the traditional media.

Most recent accomplishment
Talking to the drainage guy about drains and almost making sense.

First Computer
Kaypro