What I don’t like about Local News

Categories: Podtech, Social MediaPosted on April 27th, 2007

Our newest client Topix has asked PodTech to put together a profesional video surveying folks in the community to find out “What’s wrong with local news” This short documentary hosted by my colleague Rio Pessino asks Rafe Needleman from CNET’s Webware, Adriana G (have you seen her photo shoot? wow!), KQED’s Raul Ramirez, Hooman from Alice 97.3 who recently ripped into Scoble pretty dang good, new buddy Johnny Ham of Ustream, Sarah Meyers, Craig Newmark of Craig’s list, as well as other SF locals.

The Topix crew got together to ask folks what’s wrong with Local News, well here’s my answers:

1) Lack of aggregation of all photos, blogs, images, in my local area
2) I don’t only want the stories from journalists, but I want the opinions of people in the community (without a filter)
3) Traffic, Crime are not the only things that are worthy to me, there’s other things I want to know about.

After spending some time with Topix folks, I learned that if you type in your city name and news (Palo Alto News) Topix will come up above the fold in a Google search, try it with your city. They’re aggregating content to build something new, I hope they take some of my ideas into consideration.

Oh yeah, we’ve made some improvements to our Video player, what do you think? There’s a widescreen version, and you can share and some other features.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 10:31 am and is filed under Podtech, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The new player gets cooler and cooler. Too bad just about all streaming content got nixed at work this week. Yes, the network was *still* slow today.

I take point 3 of your answer regarding local news to heart. We need more happynews.com content in regular news. Nothing like turning on the tv with the kids and having nothing but stabbings, shootings, car accidents, and..oh yeah, the war. Seems like the only good news is the weather–no wait global warming.

I understand that vioence is sensational and people hunger for junk food, but a little more inspirational stories about people doing wonderful things would be healty for me and my kids. Just you wait.

Oh, btw, regarding TV and internet merging. My wife mismanaged a Tivo season pass and missed a season finale of a new show she loves. She went to ABC.com tonight and watched the whole show (with a couple commercials, no big deal given video quality was superb). They are bridging the gap.

Posted by brian on April 27th, 2007 at 9:00 pm

Brian, firstly, I’ve gained 10 lbs just LOOKING at your site. Great stuff! I understand your concern about violence being a well worn theme in local news. But like your lovely, delicious looking desserts, we shouldn’t make a diet entirely of “sweet” news either.

I mean, why don’t we just print Adriana’s (Future Works) press releases? Jeremiah, your firm put together a very nice video in which Criag Newmark hits the nail on the head. You can talk all day about aggregators, “happy news”, new technology, feed back loops, and relevancy, but at the end of the day, it’s smart, dedicated, naturally curious truth-seekers that make journalism. People who spend their days uncovering truth, challenging power and scouring dusty public records, not hanging out at cool bay area launch parties - we need more journalists like this.

Until we (I include my MSM colleagus and contemporaries here) realize that journalism is about dedicated people and NOT technology, we will continue to miss the mark. Don’t get me wrong, new technologies certainly change the nature of media, and offer new and powerful tools, but are the means not the end.

Posted by Jim Long on April 29th, 2007 at 12:35 pm

[...] Once again it’s people placing far too much faith in technology. Jeremiah Owyang of Podtech posted a video produced for Podtech client Topix discussing the problems wiht local news. Many of the interviews spoke of aggregators and feedback loops, but it was Craigslist’s Craig Newmark, that hit the nail on the head. What’s missing is more investigative journalism. And that folks, translates to people and time, which equals infrastructure. Rosenblum’s mantra is small cameras, which as Stewart Pittman points out in his dispatch from Blacksburg, can prove an astonishly poor storytelling tool, in some circumstances. I couldn’t help but realize this as I watched a muttonchopped dude with a tricked-out consumer-cam, working the pack of mourning kids like he was shooting a concert. Too cool for sticks, he cradled his lens awkwardly in his upturned palms, jamming the damn thing repeatedly in the faces of sobbing freshmen. [...]

Posted by Scorched Earth Screeds on Citizen vs. Professional Media | Verge New Media on May 1st, 2007 at 11:11 am

“I mean, why don’t we just print Adriana’s (Future Works) press releases?”

Why don’t we just print Adriana’s photo shoots? What you said: wow.