Sunday, August 13, 2006
Encouragement and cautionary tales on Web sites
I occasionally have made reference to community sites on the Internet. One that has come up for most comment is Myspace.com. It has built its fame on being a focal point for people of all ages to interact. It has grown in popularity as huge numbers of people sign on and create profiles on the site.
Another site that is generating wide comment and attracting large numbers of visitors is youtube.com. YouTube is a site that allows people to upload videos and others to visit and view the videos. Millions have taken up the offer to both upload and view.
If you have seen humorous video clips on television news programs or on talk shows, it is likely they were first viewed on YouTube. If they weren’t there first, they soon found their way to the site. Videos can range from commercials to stupid human stunts to video testimonials by members of the lonely hearts club.
You can also find clips from soldiers in Iraq and civilians in Lebanon. Each case the viewer can have an uncensored view of life in strife.
This site was the subject of several columns in a monthly trade magazine aimed at journalists called “American Journalism Review.” In one column geared to the Internet newspapers are advised not to miss the opportunities such sites provide. Rather than ignoring such community sites, the press should seek ways to use them.
In another column several pages later, another author provides a cautionary tale of how news bloopers can take on a life of their own on the Internet. This column specifically targeted broadcast news. It noted several cases where gaffes on camera ultimately found their way to YouTube as video clips. The result was that a momentary lapse was later viewed by hundreds of thousands of visitors to the video Website.
I must go back to the potential opportunities. These are real. Last year when the London subway bombing occurred, the first views the world got was from victims with their video cellphones broadcasting their experience to friend. Where did we get the first images of the tsunami that killed several hundred thousand people in the Indian Ocean two years ago? They were provided by amateur videographers who were in reality tourists with their tourist video cameras.
The reach of news reporting has expanded as more average people have the ability to capture images of a news breaking event long before the professional journalists are able to arrive on the scene. The advent of video cameras and digital cameras — sometimes in the same device — a cellphone, have made everyone a potential reporter. The Internet and sites like YouTube have made it possible for individuals to distribute their “stories” to the world.
The local newspaper still has the best resources to gather and distribute the wide variety of material you normally seen in a community newspaper. But I agree with the write in the journalism trade magazine when she said news organizations should strive to incorporate the resources available on the Web.
That will be one of our goals here. Comments? Observations? Send them to me at: rpolk@ chespub.com.
Another site that is generating wide comment and attracting large numbers of visitors is youtube.com. YouTube is a site that allows people to upload videos and others to visit and view the videos. Millions have taken up the offer to both upload and view.
If you have seen humorous video clips on television news programs or on talk shows, it is likely they were first viewed on YouTube. If they weren’t there first, they soon found their way to the site. Videos can range from commercials to stupid human stunts to video testimonials by members of the lonely hearts club.
You can also find clips from soldiers in Iraq and civilians in Lebanon. Each case the viewer can have an uncensored view of life in strife.
This site was the subject of several columns in a monthly trade magazine aimed at journalists called “American Journalism Review.” In one column geared to the Internet newspapers are advised not to miss the opportunities such sites provide. Rather than ignoring such community sites, the press should seek ways to use them.
In another column several pages later, another author provides a cautionary tale of how news bloopers can take on a life of their own on the Internet. This column specifically targeted broadcast news. It noted several cases where gaffes on camera ultimately found their way to YouTube as video clips. The result was that a momentary lapse was later viewed by hundreds of thousands of visitors to the video Website.
I must go back to the potential opportunities. These are real. Last year when the London subway bombing occurred, the first views the world got was from victims with their video cellphones broadcasting their experience to friend. Where did we get the first images of the tsunami that killed several hundred thousand people in the Indian Ocean two years ago? They were provided by amateur videographers who were in reality tourists with their tourist video cameras.
The reach of news reporting has expanded as more average people have the ability to capture images of a news breaking event long before the professional journalists are able to arrive on the scene. The advent of video cameras and digital cameras — sometimes in the same device — a cellphone, have made everyone a potential reporter. The Internet and sites like YouTube have made it possible for individuals to distribute their “stories” to the world.
The local newspaper still has the best resources to gather and distribute the wide variety of material you normally seen in a community newspaper. But I agree with the write in the journalism trade magazine when she said news organizations should strive to incorporate the resources available on the Web.
That will be one of our goals here. Comments? Observations? Send them to me at: rpolk@ chespub.com.
# posted by Richard Polk @ 10:33 AM 
