"By contrast, in Mr. Omidyar's world, it may not be possible anymore to turn a profit from old-fashioned news gathering. As a philanthropic gesture, he is helping fund the Sunlight Foundation, which seeks fuller disclosure of government documents. The Omidyar Network also is funding some nonprofit media enterprises, such as Common Sense Media Inc., which invites users to rate movies, videogames and the like for family suitability."
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
EBay's Founder Bets on 'Participatory Media'
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There has always been a "chicken little" view of new media--FM was going to make the sky fall on AM--television would make the sky fall on radio--next cable on television and then internet on them all.
ReplyDeleteThe new ways of media are historically evolutionary, not revolutionary--AM radio can still be a good business.
What is so intriguing about the tools and platforms we have today is how it will be used to generate the revenue to support information gathering and story telling.
We all recall the early internet content debates over "push" vs. "pull"--in fact users want a bit of both.
Yep.
ReplyDeleteHow do you build trust in the new media? I'm often skeptical about stories that originate on blogs, Slashdot, Digg,and I've certainly caught bloggers with similar resources to mine (none) making serious factual errors.
On the other hand, how much do I trust CNN or Fox News?
"Fair and Balanced" is a modern concept I think. Before the mid twentieth century I don't think newspapers would have been embarrassed to be called conservative or liberal. They made no pretense about it.
Maybe we are moving back in that direction on the Internet at least, where people stake out their position on the political spectrum and only present the news from that one viewpoint. I have no problem with that, as long as they do it openly. To get balance, you simply read from several sources.