e-Claire

Stuck in the Paradigm

Acquired Narcissistic Syndrome—shouldn’t there be a ribbon?

London: The avalanche of high quality video, photos and e-mailed news material from citizens following the July 7 bombings in London marked a turning point for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the head of its global news division said Wednesday....

"We don’t own the news any more," Sambrook said. “This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between large media companies and the public."

You actually thought you owned it?!?

Sambrook likened the increasing use of user-generated news material to a sports game in which the crowd was not only invading the field but also seeking to participate in the game, fundamentally changing the sport.

Unless it was one of the bombers who sent you a cell fone pic, it’s not user generated news.  Reported, maybe?  And what is this user stuff—news is not Kleenex.

Larry Kramer, the head of digital operations at Viacom Inc.’s CBS unit, said CBS was eager for more feedback from listeners via its newly expanded online presence, but he said the company would keep a “filter” on such contributions rather than allow open posting by users.

The goal was to “treat news more like a loop,” Kramer said. “Stories don’t end when we post them. ... People respond. We wanted to create a vehicle through which people could respond."

Come off it, Slick. Your goal is to continue pretending you have control over the flow of information.  Like slamming the barn door after the horse has left the country.  Stories never ended when you dropped ‘em.

"This is something we do every day,” [Tom Curley president of the AP] said. However, the emerging area of citizen-generated news was still in the “first inning,” Curley said. “There are lots of opportunities. The audience is growing."

uh huh… you’re waaaaaaay ahead of everyone else.  gotcha.  At least you changed the memephrase:  “citizen generated news.” Would it kill ya to use the word “reported”? Likely.  BTW, the audience for straight reporting of facts has always been there.

Another member of the opening panel, Farai Chideya, a correspondent for National Public Radio Inc. [said]

Betcha can guess this one.  Take a second....

...it “breaks my heart” that many poor people and people of color may not be able to participate in the online generation and dissemination of news. The big question, she said, was how to get people “in the caboose of the digital train” involved.

Never saw that coming....  [Wouldn’t it be raaaacist to just assume colored people ‘people of color’ are always pooooooor?  Or is the assumption that they’re just stoopider?]

Chideya suggested a “middle ground” where journalists can collaborate with non-journalists, such as distributing tape recorders to people in the area hit by Hurricane Katrina to collect sound, which could then be culled and edited by NPR journalists.

IOW Soylent News.  *gah*

In a keynote speech, former failed presidential candidate AlGore, who now runs a cable TV channel *snork* that uses user-generated material, railed against the state of television, saying that the growing entertainment focus of newscasts was undermining the country’s political dialogue.

I’ll wait ‘til you stop laughing....  Took me a while, too.

"The subjugation of news by entertainment seriously harms our democracy,” Gore said. “I’m trying to work in the medium of television to have a myway multiway conversation."

Oh stop it, Al—we’ve seen your network.

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