Nov 2, 2008
Thinking of the journalist as a DJ instead of a curator.
Photo by Thomas Hawk
Jeff Jarvis points to what may be a better analogy for the role of a modern journalist: A nightclub DJ.
Previously, I’d suggested journalists need to become a curator, but I agree that the messier, noisier role of a nightclub spinner is closer to what journalists do as they run toward constant deadlines, and serves as a less fussy example than curator. Elevator speech: changed.
The original article, in French, translates to something like this (thanks to my daughter Anna for helping Google with some of the idioms):
The job of the press is redefined by new technologies and new relationships with readers, listeners and viewers. The new journalist acts as a filter, a “packageur” of information produced by multiple sources and heterogeneous sources (other media, agencies, experts, witnesses, fans).
Information is no longer a product, it became a process, it is no longer an object it is a service and the media become facilitators. (This does not mean that the report or the investigation died, it simply means that this activity, extremely expensive, can no longer be their only activity. Exclusive content is a loss leader, a product for “the reputation…”)
The whole article is here.
Sep 22, 2008
Aggregation works
Newspapers need to be dragged kicking and screaming, but Drudge knows it and Google knows it. Aggregation works. An outstanding way to build audience is by sending people away.
One of my favorite recent arrivals on the web has been Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop.com. The model is simple: aggregate the best of the web in vertical categories and organize it in a clean and logical presentation.
In six months, he’s grown his site from nothing to more than five million page views by pointing at other people’s content:
You can think of an Alltop site as a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. To be clear, Alltop sites are starting points—they are not destinations per se. The bottom line is that we are trying to enhance your online reading by both displaying stories from the sites that you’re already visiting and helping you discover sites that you didn’t know existed. In other words, our goal is the “cessation of Internet stagnation” by providing “aggregation without aggravation.”
Some legitimately question whether Alltop is merely riding on the back of content created by other sites, but I think that the careful aggregation itself – the curation – does add value and makes it easier for me to find the content I’m looking for.
Me, elsewhere