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Newspaper Opens Up Moblog For Readers
from the going-a-different-route dept
If you ask people who have been involved in big news stories, they almost always say that the press got it wrong. This leads to a general feeling that the traditional press never gets the full story - which is why there seems to be a constant (and somewhat pointless) argument as to whether or not "blogs" compete with the traditional press. There's room for both - as they serve different purposes. Alan Reiter points out that the San Diego Union-Tribune has apparently signed a deal with textamerica to provide moblogs for readers. For those who don't keep up with this stuff, moblogs are blogs with content (often pictures) sent in from mobile phones. This is a pretty big step, though it might not seem like it at first. It's a newspaper admitting that some of its readers may have a better (photographic) take on things that are happening out there than they have themselves. It will be interesting to see how quickly other news sites follow. Of course, as with anything like this, there will be an awful lot of junk that shows up on the moblogs, and many detractors will point to all this as a reason why it's a pointless experiment. However, it's not the junk that's the point - but the few gems that come out of all that junk, and it will help to make people much more involved with the news generating process. The nice thing about blogs is that they provide so much more around the news story: whether it's additional details, opinions or context. Seeing that surrounding a newspaper story could be very interesting as it paints a much more complete picture of what happened. Of course, if newspapers really wanted to get people involved, why focus on just moblogging? Why not offer full blogging capabilities to readers?
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I wonder how long....
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Fwomp
At a more practical level, I think the tools and practices of blogging will influence the means by which news is collected and disseminated. For instance, a package like Movable Type could be used for reporters to write/upload stories which are then edited and approved for publication by an editor. Similar systems have existed for years at newspapers in the form of remote connections to legacy mainframes that allowed journalists to work from other offices and points of dispatch.
I think the evolution we're talking about is the idea that individual citizens will be enabled to act as newsgatherers in concert with traditional reporters. Obviously, the internet and internet-enabled devices are the providing an infrastructure that can promote a greater public participation in reporting day-to-day life in our communities, and arguably serve as a more accurate historical record of our culture.
In summary: It's a no-brainer.
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weeding through the junk
But how do you find the gems if they're buried in the junk?
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