The most annoying thing with modern media: equal time for nutjobs
Drew Curtis founded Fark.com (a cooler Digg) and is the author of
‘ It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News’.
The title is self explanatory – Drew Curtis is not happy at the current state of news media – there is too much frivolity.
In an
interview with Tim Ferriss, he responds thus when asked about what media pattern he found most annoying:
Equal Time for Nutjobs. It's all funny when you talk about people not believing in moon landings, or who think an alien crash-landed in Texas in 1897, or who believe that there was once an ancient Mediterranean civilization in Florida. It's another thing entirely when people start to believe that denying the Holocaust is a valid opinion.
Maybe, we ought to start a wikipedia for nutjobs - Paris Hilton, first entry?
:-)
Labels: fark, news, paris hilton
Is online news more fleeting than print and TV?
I read somewhere that the life of an online news article is 32 hours. Or, is it lesser?
A reader asks NYT Digital news Editor Jim Editor about
the celebrity-driven coverage that pervades most news web sites and blogs.
Mr. Roberts explains NYT’s position as:
…on the Web we have the ability to publish news that is being talked about today but might be fading from memory as early as tomorrow morning when the newspaper is published. While we focus most of our efforts on more significant events, like Iraq, the presidential campaign or the immigration debate, there are some stories of such novelty that people will be talking about them on subway platforms, in offices and over the dinner table.
We feel our Web readers should not have to go elsewhere to learn of things that may have less historic significance but still have commanded significant public attention.
In other words, celebrity (and gadget) coverage is for instant page views adsense clicks, which in turn may be subsidizing serious news coverage.
That would be nice if most news sites and blogs use this business model to fund long, investigative pieces that have a longer shelf value.
We know that is not true and we have to look for
better news models.
Labels: blogs, news business, paris hilton
Can Mika Brzezinski change the nature of modern news?
When she refused to read the Paris Hilton Story and later shredded the news item on air, Mika Brzezinski wanted to convey what most of have long felt:
‘… the news media is so saturated with celebrity gossip… serious issues are not getting discussed.
In this
Observer article, Mika has said that she hopes this episode forces open discussion
‘about what is news and what is not.In a related news item, the latest issue of Us Weekly magazine has declared itself to be 100% Paris free.
Labels: controversey, news business, paris hilton
Mika Brzezinski’s lesson to journalists afraid of web 2.0 revolution
The biggest problem for journalism is not web 2.0 or something .
It is that there are too many journalists out there who in the name of news reporting are covering banal, useless news.
Mika Brzezinski is not one of them. A seasoned newscaster and journalist, she was there on Ground Zero when the South tower of World Trade Center went down.
Recently, she
refused to read her segment’s lead news item on recently freed jailbird Paris Hilton.
In India, there are more politicians, small-time dancing actors and assorted cricket administrators along with ghosts on News TV than meaningful hard news.
The Indian news media takes scues from the West and I hope some of them are inspired by what Mika Brzezinski did.
When Paris Hilton came out of Jail, it was a bigger moment than Michael Moore’s “Sicko” a documentary on the U.S. healthcare system.
While most Americans aren’t that enamored of Ms. Hilton, the media and the blogosphere don’t want to let go of Paris – many online properties including Digg.com and Gawker.com owe their early success to covering Paris Hilton.
The media continue covering celebs, of all kinds, low lifes especially, knowing fully well that the subject probably benefits more from the coverage – an interviewee on CNN noted that each extra minute of TV coverage increases Paris Hilton’s value – he meant the money Ms. Hilton would receive from nightclub owners for making an appearance.
But when Mika Brzezinski tried to put fire to the script on Air, she gave vent to many journalists’ frustration against the present
‘celeb-centric, ratings-manic’ media establishment.
A blogger writes:
I have a new hero and her name is Mika Brzezinski.
Journalists who fret that the two-way web 2.0 revolution will eventually eat their lunch are wrong. Conviction about what’s news will win the day. Look around and you will many stories that need your attention - go aheda, write a blog about it; make a video blog on it.
Link to Youtube Video of Mika Brzezinski is
here.
Labels: enterprise web 2.0, journalism, paris hilton, trends
