News Blog

On Thursday, David Hazinski posted a column on the Web site of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggesting that "unfettered 'citizen journalism' (is) too risky." He points out that the online medium creates an opportunity for anyone to provide informational content, but that this new venue is prone to inaccuracies and hearsay. He argues that so-called citizen journalism "isn't journalism at all, and it opens up information flow to the strong probability of fraud and abuse."

In his article, Hazinski suggests that unless the news industry acts now to regulate amateur-professional journalism, it will be "just a matter of time before something like a faked Rodney King beating video appears on the air somewhere." In his defense, a similar scenario did play out over three years ago when Benjamin Vanderford, a San Francisco resident, produced a fake video depicting his own beheading at the hands of Islamist extremists; then again, it was a publisher from the establishment press, William Randolph Hearst, who is credited with helping catalyze the Spanish American War through manufactured news. Hearst told a reporter, "You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war," and history indicates that he may have done just that.

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This one's kind of a bitter irony. We've all been reading over and over about how traditional news outlets are turning to the Web in order to boost readership and advertising revenue in the face of a well-documented decline in print media (Wired magazine has a feature in this month's issue about newspaper chain Gannett's attempt to modernize). But in this case, it's the other way around: The Associated Press, according to a report on Friday evening, has announced that it's axing its youth-oriented, blog- and video-heavy ASAP news portal because it proved to be a failed experiment.

The two-year-old ASAP, which was created as an alternative news hub for the generation of young professionals who typically don't turn on a TV news show unless Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert is involved, will go under on October 31. Director Kathleen Carroll said in a memo that it simply wasn't profitable enough.

This is really too bad, in my opinion, because the AP had a great chance to show that it's possible for an established and reputable name in reporting to create a separate property geared toward the YouTube crowd. Unfortunately, it fell short in a few ways--ASAP offers up traditional AP news stories mixed with podcasts, video footage, map mashups, and blog commentary, but most of it isn't integrated as seamlessly as it could be. There's no central video player, for example.

Also, you have to do some clicking to find what you want to. Top billing is currently given to a feature on The Simpsons, a story and accompanying video about "office casual" fashion, and a link to ASAP's main news blog. Headlines, meanwhile, are kept in small print under verticals like News, Entertainment, and Sports; there's a ticker of AP stories at the top. It just isn't an adequate presentation of what's important--stratifying headlines by freshness and relevance is something that I think the Huffington Post does very well, for example.

The unappealing structure might've been behind ASAP's demise, or perhaps it was a matter of publicity: I'd never even heard of the project until I was at a party thrown by some New York-area media entrepreneurs and there happened to be an ASAP videoblogger walking around.

There's some cool content on ASAP, so enjoy it while it lasts--and stay tuned for more developments in the ongoing evolution of "next-generation news."

LOS ANGELES--Web 2.0 has no clothes, according to Andrew Keen.

The author of the upcoming book, The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture and assaulting our Economy, Keen is emerging as the one of the chief critics of new media.

Speaking on a panel at the OnHollywood conference here on Thursday, Keen stirred passions by attacking MySpace, YouTube, citizen journalism, the wisdom of crowds and the opinions of teenagers.

"MySpace is creating cultural narcissism in our young," Keen told the audience. "Teenage kids don't have much to say."

The founder of Audiocafe.com in 1995, Keen describes himself as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. In his book, due to be released on June 5, Keen said he writes as "as an insider about a culture that I think has gone wrong."

Keen was challenged by many watching via a live Webcast who were allowed to post comments on a screen displayed near the panel. The general response was that Keen was elitist, fearful of change and an enemy of technology.

The criticism of Keen was thrown into high gear after he argued that the quality of information is eroding thanks to untrained people, "sitting at home in their underpants" practicing amateur journalism.

He predicted that The New York Times and "legitimate journalism" would perish in coming years if the masses continue to choose amateurs over professionals.

"These microcommunities are echo chambers," Keen told the audience. "You have people on the left and the right forming their own communities and the result of all this is less serious discussion. Everyone is only talking to people like themselves."

Keen saved much of his disdain for fellow panel member Justin Kan, founder of JustinTV. Kan has attracted quite a bit of attention for broadcasting his life to the Internet via a Webcam he wears on his head.

"If things continue the way they are, we'll have a nation of Justins," Keen said. "We'll have 250 million people broadcasting themselves and its absurd. When you have 250 million people broadcasting themselves...how much more ludicrous can that be?"

Keen is now a blogger for ZDNet,which is owned by CNET Networks, the publisher of News.com.

Can you make a server sexy?

Short answer: No.

But you can still throw it a glitzy launch party.

Over the past week or so, I've been poking my head into various events at the Tribeca Film Festival in lower Manhattan, which runs through tomorrow. I've always thought of film festivals as sort of low-tech affairs, and in a lot of ways, it's true--at a screening of Edward Burns' new flick, Purple Violets, the producers apologized for the first reel being "too light," and at the premiere of Spider-Man 3 co-star James Franco's latest project, Good Time Max, Franco acknowledged that the sound on the film was still a bit iffy.

But despite that, there are more than a few high-tech companies among the festival's list of sponsors. Some are no-brainers--Apple, for example, seems quite at home among the stars and red-carpet premieres (and festival kickoff guest-of-honor Al Gore). But Verizon? Yahoo? Sun Microsystems? Last week, Sun debuted its Sun Streaming System, a new product geared toward speeding up the delivery of Internet protocol television (IPTV), in conjunction with the festival. Guests were invited to the luxe Tribeca Grand Hotel for an evening of wine and hors d'oeuvres, followed by a private screening of Burns' Purple Violets. The Sun Streaming System, meanwhile, was standing awkwardly out in the hallway, humming away. A few people opted to pose for photographs next to it. But let's just say it wasn't exactly the life of the party.

Yes, the Sun Streaming System is a step forward in IPTV's short history, but an indie film premiere still seemed a little bit of a disjointed promotion for a server, to say the least. I was in attendance that evening, and my goal was to figure out exactly what both Sun and Tribeca Enterprises had at stake in such a partnership. The answer, according to Adam Sloan, the festival's executive vice president of sponsorship sales and marketing, is content delivery. Whether it's Verizon's V-Cast TV for mobile video, or Yahoo's video portal, or Sun's IPTV-oriented offering, the festival is attempting to broaden its reach through broadband video content. "Everything they're doing is ultimately lowering the cost and increasing the capability to do more video on demand and IPTV," Sloan explained to me, "and being able to give a bigger and broader platform for films that otherwise might not be seen."

So are film festivals inking these new-media content delivery deals because they're afraid they'll be losing market share to Ask a Ninja if they don't expand? Sloan assured me that isn't the case. But the truth is that films nowadays have started to rely heavily on viral buzz, and the Internet is (for obvious reasons) the place to build that buzz. I asked Sloan about whether or not the festival was doing anything with that perpetual buzzword--user-generated content. After all, it's one of the major reasons that IPTV and broadband video are gaining the momentum that they are. "In many ways, everyone's becoming a filmmaker, and that's what makes it really fun," he said, but then added that the Tribeca Film Festival currently does not have any categories that the average person would associate with the YouTube revolution. There's a Cadillac-sponsored award that viewers vote on, and Sloan hinted at adding some more interactive features to the festival's Web site. Aside from that, it's still a hand-picked selection. Not very 2.0--but the idea I got was that it's gradually evolving to that point.

As is everything these days, right?

You'd think that bloggers and podcasters would be happy with their respective media. After all, how much better can it be to have free worldwide distribution of whatever it is you want to say at any moment.

But if you think that's enough for them--and hey, why not lump them all together in one large group--you'd be wrong. We know this because Larstan Publishing has just announced the launch of, well, Blogger & Podcaster magazine, a new monthly dedicated to chronicling the latest and greatest happenings, and the biggest names in, er, blogging and podcasting.

"Believed to be the first publication to launch simultaneously in three distinct formats," according to a press release announcing the new venture, the magazine "promises to deliver news, features, tips and profiles written for, and by, those who want to use these thriving online media to leverage their voice and expand their businesses' opportunities."

The magazine, which features famous blogger and podcaster Robert Scoble on the cover, has a Web site, of course, on which most of its content will be available for free. And it also has a free podcast edition. Why anyone would pay $79 for a subscription to the print magazine is not entirely clear.

All told, however, it is aiming its sights at the more than 80,000 podcasters and 60 million bloggers it says industry estimates say there are.

Initially, the magazine will have a circulation of 20,000, but it expects to grow to 250,000 within a year. That's a lofty goal given that most magazines simply flop.

Regardless, given the content, we should all expect to soon be reading diatribes about the new publication, both in its pages and out on the Intarweb, from Dave Winer.