MMMM #140: The Double Edged Sword of YouMedia

     When the story of a U.N. compound in Afghanistan being attacked and at least twenty staff members killed last week because a "pastor" in Florida had burned a Koran broke, I wondered  how I had missed the initial burning story?

     I remembered last year's reports about his threats to do so, and the intervention of high-level U.S. government officials that resulted in him backing down. But how did I miss the latest chapter?

     Turns out it was reported in just a tiny handful of the media. Terry Jones performed his provocative act on March 20th. And then he became his own media and posted a video of it on his website.

    Two days later it was noticed by some Middle-Eastern sites.  But it was not till this past week that the story exploded online and enraged Muslims worldwide, peaking with the attack on the U.N. compound (The U.N. being the closed thing to Americans the mob could find.)

     I suspect those members of the mainstream media who came across a story about the March 20th burning on a barbecue grill, shrugged their collective shoulders and ignored it.

     Been there, done that.

     But the net allowed the good pastor to create his own media storm, with the expected results.

     The same Internet that allows a little girl to raise money for her mother's cancer treatment also allows a small-time religious nut in Florida to provoke Muslims in Afghanistan into killing innocent people.

ALSO: the mainstream media...at least the CNN part of it...has now officially become part of what used to be called the "tabloid press". CNN's online headline for a story about Sarah Palin saying she is no longer going to whine about the MSM? Palin Says She's Through!!.



Brings me back to the days of the National Enquirer headlines like or Three Headed Baby Born!! (a snake, of course) or  Obama's Friendship with Terrorist! (When it comes to President Obama, even the thinnest link to the truth is sufficient. And that's not just in the tabloids!)



[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog]

MMM #116 - MSM, Still in The Wilderness

     As far as I can tell, the media is still in the wilderness that exists between the old broken business model and the yet to be developed (or even semi-articulated) way of making the news business work.

     It's been eight months since an experiment by three of the biggest names in news and online content shut down an experiment called "Living Stories"

     The idea was you could tell your "page" on the program to keep track of whatever stories you selected, and they would automatically be updated.     

     The experiment was conducted by The New York Times, The Washington Post and Google...a Triumvirate powerful enough to have made it a likely answer to the online journalism question. But it wasn't. The program was handed free to web developers to use it as they please, and Living Stories was no more.

     Just weeks from now, The New York Times is supposed to start charging some heavy users of their web site for access...The Wall Street Journal has already done so.

      I have yet to hear of any broadcast journalism outlets considering the same thing.

     It's not the first time the Times has ventured into the pay to play territory. Their experiment with charging for their premier columnists angered the writers and the readers, and never attracted enough subscribers to make it worthwhile. They abandoned "Times Select" in 2007, eons ago in Internet time.

     In January, we'll find out if their plan---casual users will be allowed free access, heavy users will be charged either per-story or a monthly all-access fee---will be more acceptable. Still no word on how much the paper will charge. They're apparently attracting 20-million unique hits, a number that is sure to drop--or plummet---once there's a fee charged.



[PLUS: a mea culpa from the NPR head for the handling of the Juan Williams affair.]



[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog]