JOURNALISM IN THE AMERICAS Blog
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg beats WikiLeaks' Julian Assange in controversial pick for TIME's Person of the Year
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is TIME magazine's Person of the Year, the magazine announced Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010. Many TIME readers, however, wanted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to win the honor.
Larry Magid wrote for the Huffington Post that he agreed with TIME's decision, as Facebook, with nearly 600 million users worldwide, is changing how we communicate and share information.
At 26 years old, he's the second youngest person ever to receive the distinction. Zuckerberg beat out WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was readers' top vote-winner.
In TIME's essay explaining why Zuckerberg was chosen, editor Richard Stengel wrote, "Zuckerberg and Assange are two sides of the same coin. Both express a desire for openness and transparency. While Assange attacks big institutions and governments through involuntary transparency with the goal of disempowering them, Zuckerberg enables individuals to voluntarily share information with the idea of empowering them. Assange sees the world as filled with real and imagined enemies; Zuckerberg sees the world as filled with potential friends. Both have a certain disdain for privacy: in Assange's case because he feels it allows malevolence to flourish; in Zuckerberg's case because he sees it as a cultural anachronism, an impediment to a more efficient and open connection between people."
PC World called TIME's choice "warm and fuzzy," adding that the magazine's comment section is "filled with backlash and speculation that the magazine wimped out."
Other Related Headlines:
» The Mirror (The top 10 things you need to know about Mark Zuckerberg)
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TIme
Hmm.. Assange has done a really wonderful and at the same time highly dangerous kind of job. It's like he created his own war against the whole world just to spread consciousness on what's really happening. I think Assange deserves it more.
Not sure it was the right choice
While I love Facebook and think Mark Zuckerberg has done so much in the way of how people connect and interact, what Assange has done has been much more provocative and therefore worthy of an award from something like TIME. It's a bit of a surprise, but then again not really. Time and other print organizations are having to toe the line for their bigger conglomerate parents, a lot of whom are under scrutiny because of Assange. But award or not, he's still done a major service for people and free speech.
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