Fri 7 Mar 2008
More party crashers
Posted by shelbinator under Geekery, Media, Rant, YouTube and such
This may sound like more sour grapes, but hey, it’s my blog — and I consider new media my party so I’ll cry if I want to.
At SoCon’s, Press Club Panels and Journo3G’s we new media rabble-rousers urge the journalism giants to evolve and adapt and make use of the wealth of information available in social networks online. So why are some of us so quick to criticize them for missteps and bad internet fashion? Because we’re dicks, that’s why!
Corporate giant CBS takes another step online today with the official launch of MobLogic, an online daily videocast about, um, news-ish. I say news-ish because as the hostess herself — Lindsay Campbell formerly of Wallstrip, where a good lookin’ babe and edgy edits brings sex appeal to business news — says, “I’m not a journalist. I’m coming at this like you: I read the news, I read blogs, and I wanna talk about the things that are going on around me in the world.”
Oh, good, you’re coming at this like me. Just what the internet needs: more of us. (Although truth be told, she does it much better, but c’mon, when you’ve got a real actress and a major corporate media studio backing you up, it’s hardly a fair contest.)
Why must I be so sarcastic? Because there’s something terribly artificial about such a “just like you” online “news” videocast whose host is “not a journalist” when it’s coming from a massive mainstream media outlet like CBS and a professional actress. Lindsay even uses the image of the Death Star to illustrate her affiliation.
I know, I know, I smell the irony in such criticism coming from someone who’s working on a corporate-giant-hipster-invasion news project that has a distinctly inorganic flavor to it as well, but c’mon, that’s always been MTV’s milieu.
Maybe I’m speaking out of turn here, but I think when we netizens urge the MSM to be more receptive and adaptive to online information networks, we’re not suggesting they completely reinvent themselves and bring us super-hip blog recaps on video podcasts with young babes (and whatever you’d call Itay). We want to see the same kind of solid [giving them the benefit of the doubt in some cases] news reporting, but to see it take advantage of new sources of information and methods of sorting and analyzing it that technology has made available. Learn from us, don’t try to be us, jeez.
In any event, this venture may be successful as hell. It’s already got the key ingredient as suggested by two of Lindsay’s man-on-the-street interviews (many of which, oddly enough, took place in front of other media giants’ buildings):
“Um, hot girls?” “Um, I don’t know…hot girls.”
Hot girl: check. Content: let’s wait and see. But the first part is a good start.
Read more filed under Geekery, Media, Rant, YouTube and such
March 7th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Re:
Exactly.
Jeff Jarvis irritates me, but he’s spot-on in this post about how to involve the public with the editorial process.
He cites an excellent example that should be a model for other endeavors: the Dallas Morning News uses its clout as a major media outlet to get its hands on a shit ton of recently-declassified documents pertaining to the JFK assassination, posts them publicly, and asks readers to comb through the data (it’s really too much for one or a few people to deal with in any reasonable amount of time).
As an example of how that could work here, take the recent crusade at Creative Loafing to obtain the City of Atlanta budget. The AJC’s influence may be dwindling (no may about it), but one would think that if the AJC made enough of a stink, they could get a copy. Then why not get it, post it, and have the readers go through it piece-by-piece looking for waste and comment back, since the city is in the hole this year?
March 7th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Yeah, I should have made that a broader statement to include: Learn from us and use us.
But buy us a drink, first, kthxplz?
We’ll see if CBS uses this vidcast to dumb down the news to what they think the audience expects, or lifts up the audience to participate in the news.
March 7th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Thanks for taking the time to look at MobLogic!
I can’t disagree with your comment. All I can say is that we’re trying to do something different.
CBS acquired our webshow Wallstrip last May and, by that time, Lindsay, my partner Jeff and I had already created the concept for MobLogic. It’s a show born of indy web video production, produced in the MSM.
I can honestly tell you that CBS allows us to make our content as we want to make it. I really feel like this is our show - they stay hands off.
But, I digress - please watch the show, comment, contribute. Tell us what you like and don’t like. We’re trying to make a responsive, smart show from within CBS. You’re right to be cynical, but I hope we can win you over.
March 7th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Thanks for dropping by, Adam. Like I suggested above, I’m in your same boat. I was “doing citizen journalism” on YouTube and Ustream for a while before I heard MTV was looking for “citizen journalists.” But as soon as I signed a contract with a major media conglomerate…am I a CJ anymore?
And is what you and I are doing a big, bold, breakthrough evolution by MSM, or are we pieces of flair at Tchotchkie’s? :-D
Guess we’ll compare notes at some future new media conference and see how we did. Good luck!
March 7th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
They just need more graphics and stuff on the screen. CBS knows all about that!
March 9th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
At least they’re forthright about being backed by a huge media company…rather than trying to keep it on the down-low. Gotta give them credit for transparency.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
I just have to give a shout out to Adam Elend and his previous work- he and partner Jeff did a documentary about my office Fighting for Life in the Death Belt. I’m excited to see what they’re gonna do with this new project.