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The Future Of Journalism Doesn't Have A Head Office
from the and-it's-way-bigger-than-HuffPo dept
Globe and Mail columnist Simon Houpt is unsure about the future of journalism. For a recent piece, he visited the offices of Huffington Post Canada and raised questions about the publication's approach to news curation and reporting. A lot of the usual HuffPo topics are dicussed (is aggregation theft? Is it wrong to not pay bloggers?) but there's one statement right at the beginning that I want to address:
The future of journalism looks like an ad agency.
This is what you think when you walk into the downtown Toronto offices of the Huffington Post’s Canadian operation, which it shares with its corporate parent, AOL Canada Inc. You probably don’t even need a description to imagine the scene, but here goes: Airy, two-storey, loft-like playpen on Spadina Avenue. Exposed brick. Rows of young folk in checkered flannel shirts staring intently into oversized monitors. A pair of electric guitars hanging above the boss’s desk, which sits invitingly in the corner rather than hiding away in a separate office.
For one thing, I'm not sure what's so scary about newsrooms becoming more open, accessible and friendly—to me, that doesn't immediately say "ad agency". But much more importantly, the Huffington Post is not the head office of modern journalism.
HuffPo is one brand, one network—a widespread and highly successful one to be sure, but just one piece of the puzzle. The simple fact is, there is no one hub of modern journalism. In fact, one of the biggest defining characteristics of journalism in the digital era is a movement away from centralization, with quality content coming from a huge array of sources both big and small.
It's old-world thinking that leads people to seek a single organization they can look to as an example of what journalism is becoming, and that prevents them from seeing the real change: the future of journalism doesn't have a head office, and it's not defined by what the Huffington Post is doing.
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Is aggregation theft?
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Redundant
Jaded,
Angus Maiden
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Redundant
Jaded,
Angus Maiden
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Redundant
Jaded,
Angus Maiden
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Redundant
Jaded,
Angus Maiden
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Re: Redundant
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Re: Redundant
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Redundant
Jaded,
Angus Maiden
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Re: Redundant
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Whoops
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Re: Redundant
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Re: Whoops
You are in luck, if you was in a gaming forum they would berate and make fun of you. It would make the day of some.
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Re: Redundant
Course it isn't. Because TD is a blog, not a news site.
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Amazing
That pretty much describes the local paper and the news room on every movie that I've ever seen. What's so hard to understand about that?
Oh and Angus, at least you're not putting it in all caps but that isn't impressive.
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Huffington Post
OK, maybe its not as bad as MySpace, but it still looks cobbled together and confusing.
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Re: Whoops
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Re: Redundant
So... what exactly is your complaint? I mean yeah, there's a LOT more that can be discussed on this topic - this was in no way intended to be a comprehensive post on every aspect of journalism today. But if you want to delve deeper into the details and discuss it more, I'd be happy to - just, try to only hit submit once next time.
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Re: Re: Redundant
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Re: Re: Redundant
The future of news is , news you trust, the topics you want, when you want them. Mike has been balls accurate on IP issues which is why I come back. My only complaint is his titles read like they are from a tabloid.
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Re: Re: Re: Redundant
Blogs, social media, general news sites, RSS feeds, email, Reddit like sites, all have a role to play in the future of journalism.
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Re: Re: Re: Redundant
Blogs, social media, general news sites, RSS feeds, email, Reddit like sites, all have a role to play in the future of journalism.
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Re: Re: Redundant
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Re: Redundant
Oh wait, they would have at least two budgets to work with, wouldn't they.
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Re: Re: Re: Redundant
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What media?????
Perfectly stated! Indeed, the heavy censorship practised on Ariana's site is legendary, the latest attack was when populist Jesse Ventura simply mentioned that questions should be raised concerning the 9/11 commission report, and his blog posting was immediately pulled.
But then, one can one expect from the past partner of Andrew Breitbart, who divorced her wealthy Gay husband when he lost the election, and overnight declared her neocon self to suddenly be a "progressive" --- right, a George Mason University ultra-neocon "progressive" --- for sure, doods and doodettes!
Thanks, there is no media today in America, regardless of the numerous idiots in Academia, claiming to be journalism profs, who endlessly refer to "the media" or "the MainStreamMedia" --- give the masses a break, already, with five heavily financially interlocked corporations, equally financially interlocked with the top three banksters, calling the shots, and acting as one, there is effectively one corporation controlling the vast bulk of the American myth-media.
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Re: Redundant
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