SMC103Y1 Lecture Notes - Ben Huh, Fail Blog, Citizen Journalism
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Published on 12 Nov 2011
School
Department
Course
Professor

SMC315
Monday, October 17, 2011
Grid
•originate from iWeekly, weekly publication era coming to a close
•dying medium, competition from internet sources
•paper as paper product -> out of date
•attempt to take these factors into account, relaunch and revamp website
•community and neighbourhood features, daily updates
•stringers - freelance reporters, tips and local news
•rethinking twitter/fb social media techniques
•multiple overlapping audiences
•print + digital publication
•blogging
OpenFile
•newspapers profit from ad
•online ad early 2000, ad revenue dropping
•OpenFile: community-powered news, online only
•funded by venture capital and advertising
•target advertising by offering information of members
•launched in 2010 Toronto, open up in various other cities across Canada
•idea of citizen tipping information; not citizen journalism but citizen-enabled
•suggested stories; stories can’t be “stolen” because already there
•not scalping but put together
•open newsroom; traditionally closed and secretive/protective
•news topic and writer listed with email; encourage journalists to interact with public,
instant connection
•Register Citizen Newsroom Cafe; wifi, cheap coffee, open newsroom
•increasingly more on facebook; where readers are
•Ben Huh and end of content, network like failblog; citizen driven
•huge amount of data created and shared daily... emails, photos, texts, twitter
•facebook 4 billion pieces of content every day
•trivial photos (cat and bacon) > news
•cute cat theory of digital activism: Ethan Zukerman of MIT... web 1.0 invented to allow
physists to share research papers -> web 2.0 created to allow people to share pictures
of cute cats
•web 2.0 embrace idea that photos of cats, sophisticated tools... local and global
audience
•news shared increasingly
News and Social Media