Jarvis discusses Virginia Tech citizen journalism on CNN

Jeff Jarvis was on CNN’s Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz Sunday, discussing how students used new media to inform each other about the shootings at Virginia Tech. Also in on the discussion - Mary Katherine Ham of TownHall.com.

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Add comment April 22nd, 2007

Students: our computer experience is obvious

(This piece originally appeared in the AR&D Media 2.0 Intel Report, April 20, 2007, and has been edited slightly.) News Directors absolutely want to hire reporters, anchors and producers with online experience. Many consider it essential now, as indeed it is. Part of the transition to becoming a 24/7 local media operation is having people with online skills who don’t have preconceived notions that “TV comes first and everything else comes second.” So NDs are giving the edge to candidates who have computer chops. But, as Cory noted in his April 16th entry, many of the kids coming out of school don’t list their computer experiences on their resumes. Why?

Read the full post 19 comments April 22nd, 2007

NYT: Decrying banality of Twitter misses the point

It’s nice to read a mainstream article about a new technology that embraces the tech and understands it. Of course, it also helps when the article is written by a the editor-in-chief of the M.I.T. publication Technology Review. Jason Pontin offers a review of Twitter, which we’ve been playing around with here at LR:

My own experiences with Twitter were mixed. I quickly realized that decrying the banality of tweets missed their point. The only people in the world who might be interested in my twittering — my family, my close friends — were precisely the ones who would be entertained and comforted by their triviality.

But I also strongly disliked the radical self-revelation of Twitter. I wasn’t sure that it was good for my intimate circle to know so much about my daily rounds, or healthy for me to tell them. A little secretiveness is, perhaps, a necessary lubricant in our social relations. I wondered whether twittering could ever have broad appeal.

I believe it will have broad appeal, in the same way YouTube does: large numbers of people who create information that appeals to a small audience.

1 comment April 22nd, 2007