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In the current issue of the UK publication The Guardian, Canadian author Douglas Coupland interviews the singer/songwriter Morrisey. Doug is a huge Morrisey fan, but he still dreads the act of the interview for reasons such as the dehumanizing and fake protocol surrounding it.

At the top of his piece is this excellent observation about the effect that Google has had on the journalistic process:

Let's face it, pretty much any info you need is already out there on Google. Interviews never go away any longer. They just pile up and up and up for the rest of time. If people want to know something about a subject, they can just find it themselves... Pre-Google, a writer preparing for an interview had to do genuine research involving paper, libraries, legwork and some dimension of vim. The accumulation of prior interviews was difficult, yet research effort, when made, was always apparent during the interview. This research went a long way to making said subject try harder to be responsive. These days, one merely Googles and goes to the 137th page of results to give the illusion of in-depth investigation.

Read the whole article here.