An infinite number of monkeys
If you are a paid journalist, please cover your eyes. What I am about to write may cause internal bleeding.
Have you heard the aphorism that states that an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of typewriters will eventually type all of the great works of literature – plus a few episodes of Jackass to boot?
In our role as gadflies of social media, we will soon be conducting an experiment in citizen journalism that a real journalist might characterize as monkeys with typewriters . The question we will endeavor to answer is this: Can non-journalists create near-professional news content using social media technology? ( I can hear teeth grinding already. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)
The idea is simple enough. Select a news subject such as “City Council Investigates Neighborhood Planning Process (Yawn)”. Using social media collaboration technology, encourage the creation of short term networks of individuals whose goal is to create content around said subject. Will such networks be created spontaneously fueled solely by reader interest and will those networks create content improved by the collaboration process? Or will content created this way be driven by narrow self-interest and misinformation? Our guess is both.
The second part of this experiment is to investigate ways to avoid the latter result and encourage the former.
One potential indicator of what the results might be is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a “web-based, free-content encyclopedia project … that anyone with Internet access can make changes to”. Essentially, it is a giant collaboration project whose collaborators are all of us and the result is a pretty good encyclopedia.
We are currently setting up our own Wiki site, using the same software ( MediaWiki ) that Wikipedia uses. Our collaborators will come from Montana citizens who read newspapers or visit local news websites.
Once our wiki is ready for prime time, we will launch the experiment with a half dozen or so suggested topic. Each of the topics will have different sets of rules to govern how the collaboration will proceed. Some will be wide open while others are more regulated.
Why, you might ask, are we doing this? Are we trying to take jobs away from real journalists? No. But the reality of the situation is that news content has taken a hit in recent years, both in quality and quantity. Trying to stay viable, news organizations are opting for style over substance and advertising over editorial content. Collaborative news content could increase community involvement while providing more content to struggling news organizations.
There is still a lot to do before we’re ready to launch our experiment in citizen journalism and we need your help.
If you have wiki experience (technical) and or journalism credentials and would like to work on this project, please contact me
Are you a Social Media Blogger?
Posted by Mike in Uncategorized on June 17th, 2009
Do you care about social media? If you have something to say, then we’re listening. Social Media Montana is looking for great content from those who have something to contribute to the social media debate. If you would like to be a regular contributer to Social Media Montana, contact me at socialmediamt@gmail.com.
Demise of Newspapers? Not in Montana.
The media’s favorite topic these days is the demise of newspapers in a world of Facebook, Twitter and blogs. While its clear that many Americans choose to get their news from their favorite blogger or twitterer, its less clear to what extent this is hurting traditional media. Its possible that the threat to traditional media is overstated.
The newspaper business is witnessing a decline in revenue and many attribute that decline to non-traditional media. If true, the effect seems to be less in Montana (and perhaps in other rural small-newspaper markets). Declines in ad revenue seem to be happening not only to print media, but online media as well. This could mean that declines in readership and ad placements are caused more by the weak economy than a shift in customer news preferences.
According to The Childrens Partnership, 9% of all Montana’s households have broadband compared to 20% of all households nationally. This reduced access to the Internet provides one of the reason’s local news outlets are not being as adversely affected by social media as their cousins in large metropolitan areas.
I work for a local newspaper (part of a larger chain) and this is topic one around the water cooler. While we see the tsunami coming, it seems – at least in Montana – to be somewhat in the future. But it will hit here eventually.
I’d love to hear your comments. How do you get your news? How do you view news coverage provided by your local newspaper versus the blogosphere?
Montana, the last best MySpace (or who needs social media).
Posted by Mike in Organization on June 1st, 2009
Wikipedia defines “social media” as “content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content”.
For someone who works at a newspaper, that second sentence should scare me. But curiously it doesn’t. Instead of a threat to newspapers (and my job), I view social media as a challenge and an opportunity. How do we (and I mean the traditional news delivery industry) survive in this new world where consumers don’t see a real difference between traditional news sources – with all of the fact finding and vetting they employ – and someone’s opinion on a blog?
Finding the answer to this question and others is what motivated me to start my own journey of discovery into social media. This blog, my first baby step, will chronicle that journey.
My goal for “Social Media Montana” is to create an organization that promotes, within the context of the business community, the understanding and usage of these exciting new technologies and new ways of thinking about information. How can businesses use the technology for their advantage?
How we get from here to there is not cast in stone. I certainly don’t have all the answers. Although I’m not new to the internet (I built my first website in 1990) I am relatively new to social media. But I’m betting that there are others out there like myself who see the opportunity embodied in social media. If you are one of them, I’d like to hear from you.
Contact me at socialmediamt@gmail.com
Mike Tyler