The Neo-Journalism Manifest

CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 1/2012. Cyber Fields Forever Andrzej Głowacki, Marika Wata, The neo-journalist premanifest

ANDRZEJ GŁOWACKI, MARIKA WATO

THE NEO-JOURNALISM PREMANIFEST The NEO-journalism Manifest was released for the first time in 2011 via Social Media.

We would like to present you full, early version of the Manifest.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web

THE NEO-JOURNALISM PREMANIFEST

Here I am, introducing to the internet scene, the definition of Neojournalism. Neo-journalism is opposing to my firm orders to be disclosed. It says it was invoked repeatedly; unfortunately, with a negative effect. It says it was misinterpreted. And this is true. It was seen to be absolute, common, degraded... What is Neo-journalism like? It is sweet, bitter, garish, colorful, startling, green… It is beautiful, because its basic means of expression are images. Neo-journalism is visual. It operates by the stylistic means, which are used by the visual arts.

Therefore Neo-journalism is sensual in principle. It is oriented on the impressions’ production. It is a perfectly truthful simulation. It is to be found at every place, where the reality should be caught to the cage of information and facts and afterwards to be disposed in a nice form to the public view. Neo-journalism is a package’ designing for the content, which is handed out at the festive media market of sundries.

www.CyberEmpathy.com

CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 1/2012. Cyber Fields Forever Andrzej Głowacki, Marika Wata, The neo-journalist premanifest

Neo-journalism – wrapper design of informational sweets and bitters.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the image absorbs us in a sweet act of consumption. And we absorb the image as well. There is nothing wrong about it. It is a natural inclination of our minds. We absorb it – easily, pleasantly, touched and moved by the discreet understatements, by the multiplicity of meanings, expressed in colors and shapes. The documentary record, created by a human hand in struggle with the reality, gives us understanding of environmental content, which, thanks to photographs, movies and the whole wealth of the new media, has been reduced to the size of monitor. And there is nothing wrong about it – we are observing, making up our minds, creating the world copies for our own needs. Nothing has changed in those few thousand years. In the past, the green apples on the tree sent us signal – the message: I’m unripe, do not eat me… Today the full red lips from the TV advertisement encourage: I’m ready, buy me.

Nothing’s changed. It’s visual - it’s natural.

This is what the reality is like: tied up with a virtual world, which does not stop in motion – the virtual world we see through the computer’ screen. It creates an increasingly strong semblance of reality, dressing up in feathers of images – photographs, graphics, infographics. It sends simulation stimuli. A virtual reality has a visual dimension – as everything we are surrounded by – that’s why we believe in it. It is a perfect illusion of three-dimensional reality. It’s full of controversies, accepted by us. It’s a string, which allows us to pull the distant stars and galaxies…

Neo-journalism – simulacrum design, simulation design.

Neo-journalism grew up on the basis of this new reality, the virtual reality, which decided to gain a visible visage. Therefore nowadays the traditional definitions of journalism should be abandoned. Now we are talking rather about “designing an information transfer” - simulacrum design, simulation design. The messages’ constructing runs on a visual content platform. A struggle for the content’ consumer is ongoing, and visual aspect of transmission became a secret weapon in this news’ war.

A plastic mold is not only an eye-pleasure’ add and decoration, it becomes the functional part of content, it intensifies a transmission www.CyberEmpathy.com

CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 1/2012. Cyber Fields Forever Andrzej Głowacki, Marika Wata, The neo-journalist premanifest value; it starts an essential dialog with the word.

The discussed phenomenon has now larger scale than ever before and it is accompanied by process of „life virtualization”. New media defines a new way of travelling in a country of content. A key role is played by interactivity in it. Will interface take place of books’ and newspapers’ pages? Is holistic treatment actually closer to human reasoning than linear “following the thread” – from a reason to an effect? Are we ready to accept the wealth of impressions, offered to us by the Neojournalism? Or are we ruled by a free hand of manipulation, which directs the human cognitive mechanisms? Are we able to find valuable data among milliards of visual content stimuli? Buy, sell, go, see, stand up, love, give, play, fight…

Logo after logo, logo before logo, logo devours logo, like saint icons, symbols from an ancient, medieval times. They are clear for initiated ones – for those ones on time and ahead of time. Behave yourself. As others do. Because the voice of your purpose is flowing to you from an icon, from an advertisement. Yes, it’s calling You by name, the Media Superman. Because You will be free and you will be yourself in the interconnections net of the image’ world. Your intensions will become read out and You will succumb to the immediate illusion, interference, illumination in image and through images.

The font dictate on paper for a long time was pushing images to the margins of importance. But their natural charm and personal grace let them quickly throw off the yoke of slavery. They became independent and powerful; they walked out the shadow, insidiously taking control over the press’ visage. In fact, the press has experienced its golden age in XX just thanks to its hot, emotional romance with the image. The image was the virus, spreading out to create a great consortium of the consumerism.

Here is a new era coming – the era of sacrifices to idols hidden in the crowd – the anonymous god, the infinite and immeasurable god in network, the million-handed god, the god of trade, the god of mass, speeding god, the god of Google’ statistics, the god observed and spied, offered for tasting, the god of data. Humanity has been gathered in one body of beyond the spatial activity, where the leading role is played by the temptation of an image, contained in the Cyberspace galaxy. The new binary super language is being created – Neo-journalism Language - together with Neo – the hero of cyber world, coming from the cybernetic image’ galaxy. www.CyberEmpathy.com

CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 1/2012. Cyber Fields Forever Andrzej Głowacki, Marika Wata, The neo-journalist premanifest

Natural communication, nonverbal one, sensory one, extrasensory one all are declining, lost in cyberspace of design impressions… Locked in a cocoon of solitude, braided with Cyberports and Cybersociety network, flooded with unnecessary information and squashed with an image…

The human being. It is moving in anonymous worlds, equipped with a kind of spaces. The interpersonal relationships are taken away by the world of cyber technologies. Visual codes are landmarks, a spider's web, a network, nodes ...

It's a trap! It's liberation!

www.CyberEmpathy.com