Charlie's presentation with notes:



Chapter 7 Notes (by Birin)
We the media ch 7
Charlie Butte presenting

Notes by Birin

- Former consumers are now engaged consumers

- Zeyad: Iraqi blogger who covered the news of war in Iraq (Iraqi
citizen). Professional writers began to use his blog as a credible
source.

- Can blogs be considered credible sources?
*they must have a reputation
*it is the same as a "first hand witness"
*same concept as citing an interview

- rules don't apply to bloggers
*Rex is a citizen journalist who wrote a report on the interview but
went off the record and posted the interview on his blog
*ethics apply however people with strong opinions do post things
although it will be taken down. It is the responsibility of bloggers
to be appropriate
*if you are extreme/ inappropriate about what you write, you will lose readers.

- empowering the young and the old
*mit helped e elders create their own website so the ok'd folks could
write about their community in the easiest if ways.

- wiki (a different kind of encyclopedia)
  • is this info ever going to be viewed as credible source?
  • it should be but the fact that anyone can put anything on it makes
it less credible. (secondary source)

- will wiki ever put the normal encyclopedia businesses out of business?
  • yes because wiki is very adaptable

- Jimmy Wales's TED talk on encyclopedias including wiki
  • the idea to get a free encyclopedia to everyone
  • funded by donations from the public
  • 2 million total articles
  • more popular than the NY times
  • 1 employee (many many volunteers)
  • relies on the basis that most people understand the idea of neutrality
  • 18% of all edits are done by anonymous people

- advertising vs the tip jar
  • BBC - pay or go to jail model (hasn't rurally worked well)
  • now that blogs are more popular they now have more mainstream advertisements
  • Chris Albritton (the tip jar) - your blog must be
controversial....he said if you give him money he would go to Iraq aid
cover the news
  • advertising is the better business model...we all discussed this in
the first quarter