news Tag

Murdoch Strikes At Google Again…

It’s been awhile since we first heard Rupert Murdoch that he would block News Corp. websites off the search engines, particularly Google.  And since nothing has happened within the past 5 months, Murdoch warned the world again over the weekend that his sites will no longer be available to the search engines.   .

“We are going to stop people like Google or Microsoft or whoever from taking stories for nothing . . . there is a law of copyright and they recognise it,” Murdoch said according to Paul Harris who attended the National Press Club. (more…)

Austin Plane Crash Plays Out On Social Media

67119420This morning, reports of a single-engin plane crashing into a building just north of Austin, Texas hit the airwaves and the web.  Local stations KXAN & KVUE in Austin had continuing live coverage of the crash with eyewitness reports.  And why eye-witness reports play a major part of how a story unfolds, social media users shared their views before any of the stations started covering the story. And as we have reported in the past, social media is changing the way we get our news.

While the story is still developing, here’s an overview of the story with how social media users have been reporting it. (more…)

Can Twitter Be The News?

twitternewsA few weeks ago when I talked about the future of social media, one of the things I mentioned was how Twitter was going to become our news source.  Next month, five journalist are actually going to test out the method of only getting news from only Twitter and Facebook.  The “Behind Closed Doors on the Net” experiment’s goal is to see if the journalist can actually write articles based on facts mentioned on the social networks.  The only way to do that, is take away and block all other communication technologies.  That means no phone, radio, or clicking on links attached to the social networks. 

I’m looking forward to seeing how the journalist do in the experiment.  Can anyone really just get their news from Twitter and social media alone?  I say “Yes & No.”  I think Twitter is a great tool for overviews, and for discussion.  However some stories are best told by social media.  The Iran election from last summer is a great example.  Although journalist were banned from covering it, the citizens of country took our their cameras, and shared what was happening with the rest of the world.  While this was everyone’s only option to learn about developments, it opened the doors to citizen journalism, allowing anyone to tell a story, and in some cases, like this situation, made the story more real.  (more…)

YouTube Introduces Tool for Citizen Journalists

w3207tv_300 copyYouTube has some great video.  You can find video from just about anywhere, from any event, with almost anyone.  And since anyone can shoot a video and post it, news organizations often showcase YouTube videos from events that they personally don’t have footage from.  Of course this played a crucial role earlier this year during the national election in Iran, when journalists were banned from reporting there.  Instead, the citizens of Iran took out their cameras and shot video and posted it to various sites all over the web.  

However, actually finding a specific video among millions of others can be a bit tricky sometimes.  A new tool designed by YouTube aims to change that. YouTube Direct will help connect websites connect with its users, most specifically news organizations with citizen journalists.    (more…)

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