4 Minute Roundup: The Problem with Content Farms

\n\n4MR is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.\n\nIn this week's 4MR podcast I give an overview of \"content farms,\" sites such as those from Demand Media, Yahoo's Associated Content and AOL Seed that produce massive amounts of content for low pay. While there have been issues with the quality of content from these sites, they often provide \"good enough\" how-to information for people searching for it online. Blogger/journalist Jason Fry has been a critic of content farms in the past, but now takes a more nuanced view of them, saying he's more worried about how they affect readers and searchers than the journalism business.\n\nCheck it out:\n\n\n\n

4mrbareaudio72310.mp3

\n\n>>> \"Subscribe to 4MR\":http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/audio_podcast.xml <<<\n\n>>> \"Subscribe to 4MR via iTunes\":itpc://www.pbs.org/mediashift/audio_podcast.xml <<<\n\nListen to my entire interview with Jason Fry:\n\n\n\n

fry full.mp3

\n\nBackground music is \"What the World Needs\" by the \"The Ukelele Hipster Kings\":http://www.mevio.com/music/?artist_id=1930 via PodSafe Music Network. \n\nHere are some links to related sites and stories mentioned in the podcast:\n\n\"Writers Explain What It's Like Toiling on the Content Farms\":http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/07/writers-explain-what-its-like-toiling-on-the-content-farm202.html at MediaShift\n\n\"Your Guide to Next Generation 'Content Farms'\":http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/07/your-guide-to-next-generation-content-farms200.html at MediaShift\n\n\"Beyond Content Farms series\":http://184.73.194.104/mediashift-mt/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=4&tag=beyond%20content%20farms&limit=20&IncludeBlogs=4\n\n\"Hey, Demand Media! Get Off My Lawn!\":http://reinventingthenewsroom.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/hey-demand-media-get-off-my-lawn/ at Reinventing the Newsroom\n\n\"Comment by Demand Media writer about getting \$100 per day\":http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/07/writers-explain-what-its-like-toiling-on-the-content-farm202.html#comment-171281 at MediaShift\n\n\"The 'Craigslist Effect' Spreads to Content as Free Work Fills Supply\":http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=144680 at AdAge\n \n\"Content 'Farms' - Killing Journalism, While Making a Killing\":http://www.thewrap.com/media/article/content-farms-killing-journalism-and-making-killing-18858 at The Wrap\n\nAlso, be sure to vote in our poll about what you think about content farms:\n\n\n\n\nMark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and \"Idea Lab\":http://www.pbs.org/idealab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the \"Online Publishers Association\":http://www.online-publishers.org. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter \"@mediatwit\":http://www.twitter.com/mediatwit.\n\n

\n\n4MR is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.