EVERYTHING'S CONNECTEDSimon Waldman (first post below) has an essay on the need for media to understand permanence in which Wikipedia (second post below) figures somewhat prominently. Spooky. Simon's essay is at Press Think and is essential reading. Question: Has Jay Rosen ever written or published anything at Press Think that is not essential reading if you're trying to under media?
Observation: Trying to keep up with the wealth of information, opinion, musings and observations about media on the Internet is like trying to read a book that continues to be written (and sometimes rewritten) as you read it. |
THE NEED FOR BIG MEDIASimon Waldman has an must-read post that deconstructs some of the giddiness surrounding the "blogosphere coming of age" talk in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami. Simon writes that the "completely excessive nature of this horrible disaster" has shown the strengths and the weaknesses of citizen journalism.
The great strength is clearly the vividness of first person accounts. And, in this case, the sheer volume of them. Pretty much every story of everyone who experienced the tsunami is moving in someway or other — and thanks to blogs, text messages, camcorders and the overall wonderfulness of the net, there have never been so many stories recorded by so many people made so widely available to whoever who wants to find them, whenever they want to find them. The great weakness, though, is the lack of shape, structure and ultimately meaning that all this amounts to. It is one thing to read hundreds of people's stories. It is another to try and work out what the story actually is. It's legacy media, he argues, that give massive, horrible stories their shape, through "distillation, reduction and editing." He's right. I left this comment at his site: Simon: Great piece and I agree with most of it as things stand now. If I were a newspaper editor, blogs wouldn[base ']t scare me (although I would be finding ways to work with them, the way good editors already do). What would scare me is a type of blogger/online journalist we haven't yet seen emerge in any significant way: an independent aggregator/editor who would pull this stuff together, give it priority and structure, provide the necessary links (to the 'net and to MSM), keep it updated, etc. There's a hint of this at sites like Flick'r with what it does with photos.
Not sure if an aggregator/editor will ever emerge. But given the raw material that was available in the early aftermath of the tsunami, the ease of access, connectivity and the easy-to-use publishing tools, it would not be difficult. |
WIKIPEDIA'S NEWS PLANJimmy Wales, cofounder of Wikipedia, gives his thoughts on plans for Wikinews in an interview with CNET's news.com. Wales has some strong opinions about what he sees as a loss of objectivity in the media and he sees Wikinews as the way to counteract that. But (and this may be the fault of the interview), he comes across as somewhat naive about media and even about what's happening with blogs. He does make it clear that Wikinews is an experiment.
If, in six months, we can't get away from writing highly slanted, biased stories, and it's just a disaster, we'll close it. I'm willing to give Wikinews the benefit of the doubt and I hope it can add something to the mediascape. It's more likely that we'll look back on it as a valiant try.
AFTERTHOUGHT: The real importance of Wikinews is that it's another indication of the breadth of dissatisfaction with legacy media and the growing desire for something new and better. |
A YEAR OF POKING AROUNDDerek Willis says 2004 was a good year for investigative and computer-assisted reporting. At The Scoop, he looks back on some of the stories he considers highlights of the year. He's also compiled a list of The Scoop's 50 most cited news organizations in 2004. Willis deserves a lot of credit for the work he does at The Scoop. The site regularly provides evidence that journalists continue to do great work, even in these uncertain times for legacy media.
I'm sure, too, he's done more than his share to evangelize for investigative work, by showing what can be done, pointing reporters to stories they may be overlooking in their own communities and priming the pump for more stories. |
FOR GEEKS AND TAXPAYERSCBC has started releasing some of the underlying code for its ZeD TV show as open source (free). Nice move by the publicly-owned broadcaster. The site also links to three sites that help explain why the Mother Corp has decided to go open source.
SOURCE: UNMEDIATED |
Last update: 1/30/05; 10:21:42 PM .
