I think that the potential for this new enterprise is fascinating. Open Source Media, as I understand it, will attempt to aggregate bloggers and serve as a one stop shop for getting your news via bloggers. Initially this may sound silly, but the more I think about it the more intrigued I am.
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Already I get a substantial amount of news from blogs. Not simply those blogs that point out news stories from the mainstream media and then offer up their own spin, but those that perform actual first hand reporting. For example with Iraq I read the Iraqthemodel blog daily for news updates -- especially during elections -- and reporting from embedded reporter Michael Yon. Or take another example, gentrification here in DC. While the Washington Post does a good job reporting on it, you can also find lots of original reporting at sites such as this and this.
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Now, right now bloggers and the mainstream media are difficult to compare. Using the mainstream media I can get a televised reporter straight out of Baghdad with video images of the latest happenings. With blogs I can get some usually relatively short reports that, if I'm lucky, include a few still pics. But how much longer will this last? Given the ever increasing internet speeds available to consumers, the increasing power of personal computers (and the portability of laptops) and the decreasing costs of digital video equipment, what is to eventually stop everyday people from becoming freelance reporters?
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Imagine for example a natural disaster takes place. While the mainstream media moves into position citizen journalists can already be on the scene reporting with their own footage and take on the situation. In order to find them you would just go to the OSM site and look up whose blogging about whatever you're interested in. While there would be obvious quality issues initially I think that the best reporters would rise to the top as their reputation increases. Dan Rather, for example, would probably not last too long in this environment.
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Already I get a substantial amount of news from blogs. Not simply those blogs that point out news stories from the mainstream media and then offer up their own spin, but those that perform actual first hand reporting. For example with Iraq I read the Iraqthemodel blog daily for news updates -- especially during elections -- and reporting from embedded reporter Michael Yon. Or take another example, gentrification here in DC. While the Washington Post does a good job reporting on it, you can also find lots of original reporting at sites such as this and this.
:
Now, right now bloggers and the mainstream media are difficult to compare. Using the mainstream media I can get a televised reporter straight out of Baghdad with video images of the latest happenings. With blogs I can get some usually relatively short reports that, if I'm lucky, include a few still pics. But how much longer will this last? Given the ever increasing internet speeds available to consumers, the increasing power of personal computers (and the portability of laptops) and the decreasing costs of digital video equipment, what is to eventually stop everyday people from becoming freelance reporters?
:
Imagine for example a natural disaster takes place. While the mainstream media moves into position citizen journalists can already be on the scene reporting with their own footage and take on the situation. In order to find them you would just go to the OSM site and look up whose blogging about whatever you're interested in. While there would be obvious quality issues initially I think that the best reporters would rise to the top as their reputation increases. Dan Rather, for example, would probably not last too long in this environment.
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I'm not ready to declare this form of reporting the future, but it is certainly thought provoking.
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