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Reuters Tells Its Journalists That Twitter Does Not Trump the Wire

Written on March 12, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, book, marketing

Reuters has sat somewhat silently in the background of all the hub bub surrounding whether Google should be able to index stories and make money off that content through advertising. That has been an AP fight for the most part. The strategy has helped Reuters, at least in my eyes, because by staying out of the fray they are implying that they are about journalism first. That’s my take and yours may differ which is fine.

What the news organization has not done until yesterday is put out an official social media policy but that’s now complete. Mashable reports

Last night, Reuters released their social media policy, which includes instructing journalists to avoid exposing bias online and tells them specifically not to “scoop the wire” by breaking stories on Twitter.

The strict instruction makes it clear that even though news continually breaks on Twitter first — especially in disaster scenarios — Reuters journalists are to break their stories first via the wire and not on Twitter.

The social media policy in question also addresses a number of other Twitter, Facebook, and online concerns, offering up instructions and recommendations whenever possible.

The relationship between breaking news, social media and traditional news outlets is difficult to define. In one way you never want to limit the ability to gather and report news but the integrity of the news has to be kept in place.

Hence the rub. While social media may allow for someone to get a “scoop” there is the real danger that it ends up being a scoop of crap versus the truth or a clearer picture of a circumstance. Seeing something happen live is very visceral and exciting but it may only be one small portion of the truth and, in fact, could be completely unrepresentative of the totality of a situation. As a result people are shaping opinions and digesting the news based on a “gut reaction”. That’s important but so is gathering all of the facts and then forming a complete picture of a situation, not just a snapshot opinion. Waiting for a wire version of an event at least allows for some more time to gather data and tell fact from fiction.

So having said all of that I think that Reuters and any other hard news outlet is doing something that is essential as we move forward in the new world order of content creation and reality. The integrity of the news has to be preserved and just because social media outlets make it happen quickly in no way makes it more accurate. In fact, it will likely be less so.

Since there will be no way to stop the Twitter journalism that is evolving I hope that the main news reporting entities realize that they could be even MORE important in the future if they still take the time to vet information and then tell the whole story behind the pictures and events that are reported “on the scene”. While I know this is a conservative approach I think it will be critical moving forward for consumers to be able to judge what is fantastic against what is really happening and why it happened.

Maybe that’s going to be the real purpose of traditional news organizations going forward. To present a truly informed version of events and to help us put together the pieces of situations that are always much more complicated than 140 characters or a photo can convey. I think that is necessary and vital.

How does Reuters plan to do this? Through telling journalists to keep their personal stuff personal and to not display any bias that could boomerang on them. Also, having tweets looked at by someone else to ensure everything is above board is discussed. Read the policy if for nothing else to be informed .

So what do you think? Is the scoop more important than the whole truth? Is there danger in 140 character versions of events that are often far more complex? How can traditional news organizations maintain the balance that protects integrity but remains timely in the new world order of “report as you go”?

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Reuters Tells Its Journalists That Twitter Does Not Trump the Wire

Express Yourself with Google’s New Blogger Template Designer

Written on March 12, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

Don’t go for second best baby

Put your blog to the test

You know, you know, you’ve got to

Make Blogger express how it feels

And maybe then you’ll know your blog is real!

I used to be a Blogger fan. However, just like my love of Madonna, I stopped liking Blogger when it started looking tired and old.

Well, Google has announced a new Blogger Template Designer, that might help breathe a little life into the service that arguable plays second-fiddle to WordPress.

With the new Blogger Template Designer you can–you guessed it–completely customize the look and feel of your blog–something my friend Vinny Lingham has being doing for years over at Yola.

Anyway, spam-scrapers bloggers can now enjoy these features:

• Fifteen new professional templates to start from (and more on their way)
• Custom blog layouts with one, two and three columns
• Hundreds of free professional background images from iStockphoto
• Customizable colors, fonts and more

This video explains it further:

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Express Yourself with Google’s New Blogger Template Designer

Google’s China Issue an Inside Job?

Written on January 18, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

We have seen and heard so much in the past week about the cyber attacks in mid-December on Google that originated from China that now the story has shifted. Of course assessing the damage and closing the holes that exist at Google are a main priority not to mention that Washington is pretty interested in putting more detail on China’s digital espionage exploits. In the midst of this though is a rumor that is being reported by Reuters that this may have all been an inside job done by Google staff in the China office.

Reuters reports

Google is investigating whether one or more employees may have helped facilitate a cyber-attack that the U.S. search giant said it was a victim of in mid-December, two sources told Reuters on Monday.

Google, the world’s most popular search engine, said last week it may pull out of the world’s biggest Internet market by users after reporting it had been hit by a “sophisticated” cyber-attack on its network that resulted in theft of its intellectual property.

The sources, who are familiar with the situation, told Reuters that the attack, which targeted people who have access to specific parts of Google networks, may have been facilitated by people working in Google China’s office.

Google is calling any talk like this speculation and through a spokesperson refused to comment. The rumors include the denial of employees to internal network operations last week as a result of these discoveries. While it all appears to be speculation at this point it looks like this will get more interesting edpecially in light of Washington’s interest.

To review, this is what happened in a very 30,000 ft flyover kind of way.

Security analysts told Reuters the malicious software (malware) used in the Google attack was a modification of a Trojan called Hydraq. A Trojan is malware that, once inside a computer, allows someone unauthorized access. The sophistication in the attack was in knowing whom to attack, not the malware itself, the analysts said.

Espionage is nothing new so the ideas that these attacks took place shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone. What seems to have most people concerned is that it happened to Google which has a reputation (whether it is perceived or real is not the point) that is does very little wrong. That image helps them stay away from being talked about regarding the amount of data they have on just about everyone and the real creepy stuff they could do with it.

Now, however, that reputation may have taken a shot because no matter how it happened, inside job or not, the search and Internet giant has been exposed as being as vulnerable as the next guy.

While Google wants to do no evil it better be very prepared for those who would love to do evil to them.

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Google’s China Issue an Inside Job?

German Govt. Says Google Becoming ‘Giant Monopoly’

Written on January 11, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, book

Germany’s justice minister has shot a bow at Google, saying that the company is becoming a “giant monopoly” and threatening government action if it doesn’t become more transparent.
According to a Reuters report over the weekend, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger shared her concerns about products like Google Earth and Google Books with the German magazine Der Spiegel:
[...]



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German Govt. Says Google Becoming ‘Giant Monopoly’

Diller Backs Off Ask.com Sale, Talks Consolidation Instead

Written on December 2, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: Object

In what might just be a bit of posturing, Barry Diller told the Reuters Global Media Summit in New York that he’s turned away companies interested in buying Ask.com and thinks consolidation with another search company is the way to go.
Diller, the CEO of IAC — Ask.com’s parent company — was clarifying comments made in [...]



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Diller Backs Off Ask.com Sale, Talks Consolidation Instead