Category Archives: Links

Murdoch: Would Serve Powerful If Bloggers, Bloviators Replace Journalists

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Rupert Murdoch on justifying journalism:

Now, it would certainly serve the interests of the powerful if professional journalists were muted – or replaced as navigators in our society by bloggers and bloviators. Bloggers can have a social role – but that role is very different to that of the professional seeking to uncover facts, however uncomfortable.

I guess he does not consider his own journalists to be "professional" then, since they prop up his own political and business interests on a regular basis…

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The Independent launches new newspaper title: i

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Evgeny Lebedev, Chairman of Independent Print Ltd:

I am very proud to launch i, which will be the first quality daily paper to have launched in Britain since The Independent itself in 1986. My father and I believe that a free press is a fundamental tool of a democracy, and we believe that newspapers still have a future, and a very important one.

Independent’s Editor-in-Chief Simon Kelner:

With the launch of i, we are again doing something radical and new, creating a paper for today that retains the essential qualities of The Independent. Ever since The Independent launched, the paper has had a reputation for innovation and boldness and now we are creating the first post-modern newspaper, attractive to those who prize intelligence, convenience and desirability.

New title will go on sale nationwide on Tuesday 26 October 2010

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Marr on bloggers: inadequate, pimpled, single, seedy, abusive ranters

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Andrew Marr's diatribe at the Cheltenham Literature Festival:

Most citizen journalism strikes me as nothing to do with journalism at all.

A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting. They are very angry people.

OK – the country is full of very angry people. Many of us are angry people at times. Some of us are angry and drunk. But the so-called citizen journalism is the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night.

It is fantastic at times but it is not going to replace journalism…

Most of the blogging is too angry and too abusive. It is vituperative. Terrible things are said on line because they are anonymous. People say things on line that they wouldn't dream of saying in person.

Ouch! Talk about missing the point… scarily one-sided!

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Twitter, Facebook, and social activism

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Malcolm Gladwell:

The evangelists of social media don’t understand this distinction; they seem to believe that a Facebook friend is the same as a real friend and that signing up for a donor registry in Silicon Valley today is activism in the same sense as sitting at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960. “Social networks are particularly effective at increasing motivation,” Aaker and Smith write. But that’s not true. Social networks are effective at increasing participation—by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires. [...] In other words, Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice. We are a long way from the lunch counters of Greensboro.

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Can a Platform Succeed Without a Popular Service?

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Adam DuVander:

Twitter and Facebook are often lauded as shining examples of what a platform does for your business. And for good reason. They have very successful developer programs. But they are also extremely popular services on their own. A developer may not build where there is not the foundation of a loyal user base. But even that has exceptions.

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Real-time Web + journalism = Real-time reporting

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Robert Hernandez:

For the record, real-time reporting is more than just using social media.

A reporter can be sending out images or live video (UStream, Qik, Twitcasting, etc.) from his or her cell phone. A photographer or reporter could be automatically uploading images from his or her camera using technology like the Eye-Fi.

It's journalism without a safety net… it's hyperlocal AND global journalism… it's working under the deadline of now, 15 minutes from now and 15 minutes ago.

The journalism game has changed — again. And this won't be the last time. While technology evolves, what are constant and never-changing are our core journalistic values.

Hold them close as you harness the power of real-time reporting.

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Is Paul Waugh’s shock online defection the tipping point?

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Paul Waugh on leaving the London Evening Standard to join PoliticsHome.com:

The reaction from colleagues has been fascinating. A lot of them are shocked. Some people are saying I am the tipping point. But they all see that the future is online. When I started Tweeting, people said I was bonkers, but it has proved to be tailor-made for politics. It's a phenomenally quick and agile way of reporting.

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