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MagazineShift
You Deserve More Than Time's Person of the Year
I've had two strong reactions to the big news that Time magazine had chosen "you" as their Person of the Year for 2006. My first reaction is utter amazement that people at Time magazine -- or perhaps, some people -- are starting to understand the digital media revolution, the growing power of average people who can now control and create their own media experience.
more »Digging Deeper
WSJ Gets Comfortable with Blogs, Wants to Boost Community
Historically, the august Wall Street Journal's website has been the antithesis of Web 2.0 and online innovation. The Journal's site, WSJ.com, costs money to access, even if you already pay for the print edition. The site has stressed online columns, as opposed to blogs, and there has been very little multimedia.
more »Your Take
What is your most audacious prediction for the media in 2007?
As the new year dawns the time is nigh for year-end roundups, looks back and overall journalistic holiday laziness. One of the great traditions in journalism is a list of predictions for what will come in the year ahead -- and never following up to find out which predictions actually came true. Rather than make my own predictions, and because Time magazine has deemed "you" as the Person of the Year, I've decided to turn this prognostication duty over to you, dear MediaShift readers. So what's your most audacious prediction for the year in media ahead of us? Will GoogTube figure out how to make money? Will Rocketboom launch a lawsuit against Amanda Congdon at ABC? Will Nick Denton tie his pay to Valleywag traffic numbers? Will TechCrunch's Michael Arrington be humble? Share your craziest predictions for 2007 in the comments, explain why it will happen, and I'll list the best ones in the next Your Take Roundup in the new year.
more »Your Take Roundup
Traditional Newsrooms Still Need to Walk the Talk
It's much easier to talk about changing than to actually change. That's the lesson everyone learns each year with New Year's resolutions such as "I'm going to lose 20 pounds and exercise more" or "I'll finally start my own business." In the media world, traditional old-world media loves to talk about new media, from podcasts to blogs to citizen journalism. And while many old-line newsrooms have tried out many of these formats, I wondered whether they had really changed their stripes or were just making cosmetic changes.
more »Open Source Reporting
Building the Ultimate Auto Media Center
When it comes to enjoying music or talk radio in the car, why does everything have to be so complicated? First, I have to spend time loading up my iPod with music or podcasts I've downloaded. Then I have to charge my iPod up with power. Then I have to connect my iPod to my car stereo's converter cable. Then I have to fiddle around with the iPod controls to find the music or podcasts I want to listen to -- and NOT while driving.
more »Digging Deeper
YouTube Explains the Mystery of Home Page Picks
Mark Day, a friend of mine in the San Francisco Bay Area, has been trying to break into stand-up comedy for the past year. Recently, he got a big break by having one of his brief video comic bits -- The Smiley Intervention -- featured on the front page of YouTube. Not long after getting in the featured spot, his video shot up to 750,000 views, and he got hundreds of new subscribers to his YouTube channel, the home of his videos.
more »Futurama
Big Media's 'OurTube' to Dominate Online Video Realm
NEW YORK, November 31, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- The heads of the four major U.S. televion networks today announced the long-awaited unveiling of "OurTube," a new online video-sharing service where people will be able to legally upload and share any video approved by the media companies for sharing. The service has been in development for more than two years, and promises to take video-sharing to the next level.
more »Philosophy
Internal Company Memos Make Online Fodder for Yahoo
Lately, there has been a lot of intrigue at new media conglomerate Yahoo. Most average folks use Yahoo for the email or perhaps the personalized portal, My Yahoo, or maybe the fantasy football leagues. Largely, Yahoo makes its money with advertising, though most of the content isn't created by Yahoo itself.
more »Your Take
What's the attitude in traditional newsrooms toward new media?
We hear a lot of rhetoric from old-line media company moguls such as News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch that new media and the Internet are of utmost importance. And Murdoch has certainly put his money where his mouth is, buying up MySpace, IGN and other Internet properties. But what about in the newspaper, magazine and TV newsrooms and editorial meetings? Is there action in those ground-level environments to make good on the pronouncements from the top? How do veteran and newbie reporters, editors, producers and TV anchors feel about the Internet disrupting the media environment? Are they excited about it, scared about it, or both? Is there a generational gap between incoming journalism grads and the old-schoolers? If you work in a newsroom, or have interacted with editorial departments in TV, radio, newspapers or magazines, please share your thoughts in the comments below. You can also send private, anonymous emails to me via the Feedback Form, if you prefer. I'll run the most insightful comments in the next Your Take Roundup.
more »Digging Deeper
Valour-IT, Milblogs Give Hundreds of Laptops to Wounded Soldiers
As I sit here and type this blog post, I pause for a moment to consider how important my fingers and hands are to me as a blogger and writer. If I should be injured or lose the use of my hands in some awful accident, what would I do?
more »MarketingShift
'YouTube,' 'Iraq Videos' Searches Lead to MediaShift
Back in January, not long after I launched the MediaShift blog, I wrote a blog post about soldiers in Iraq uploading their videos to YouTube. When I made that post, I included a screen shot from one of the videos, which I casually titled "YouTube soldier." Now, nearly 11 months later, that picture is bringing in the most referred traffic to my blog.
more »Podcasting
Podcast Audience Small But Growing...Enough?
You could call it the Headline Conundrum. Or maybe Sound-Bite Logic. Whatever the term, there's a regular problem with journalism related to the brevity of space to explain a complex issue or finding. A recent survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 12% of Internet users have downloaded a podcast, up from 7% who said they did the same thing in a similar survey six months before. But as for people who download podcasts on a daily basis, the number was a tiny 1%.
more »Tags
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