MediaShift: How New Media --from Weblogs to Podcasts to Citizen Journalism -- Are Changing Society and Culture

Two articles by Mark Glaser

NYU Professor Stifles Blogging, Twittering by Journalism Student (September 17, 2008)

[...]Taylor thought that her professor, Mary Quigley, was not up to speed on social media and podcasting -- even though the class she was teaching was called Reporting Gen Y." And Taylor felt that NYU was not offering her enough classes about new media; she cited the requirement that students bring print editions of the New York Times to class as one example of their outdated mindset.

Not surprisingly, Quigley was not happy with the story and was upset that Taylor had not sought permission to write her first-person report about the class, and told Taylor it was an invasion of privacy to other students in the class. By Taylor's account, Quigley had a one-on-one meeting with Taylor to discuss the article, and Quigley made it clear that Taylor was not to blog, Twitter or write about the class again. That was upsetting to Taylor, who had been planning a follow-up report for MediaShift that would include Quigley's viewpoint and interviews with faculty.[...]

Reuters Closes Second Life Bureau, but (Virtual) Life Goes On (February 19, 2009)

[...]Reuters made waves by setting up a bureau in SL, with reporters Adam Pasick and Eric Krangel covering stories about the virtual currency and the startup businesses springing up in-world.

But last October, Reuters closed its bureau, and let its specialized blog lapse. CNET and Wired also developed land in Second Life and both have largely abandoned their efforts (though CNET Japan still has an outpost). CNET's Daniel Terdiman, who helped shepherd CNET's presence in SL, still writes about virtual worlds on his blog, Geek Gestalt, but hasn't written specifically about SL for a year. CNN, however, came later to SL, in late 2007 with its iReport presence, which recently was beefed up to an island where SL users report on their own world as citizen journalists.

How did the media go wrong in coverage -- and participation -- in SSL, and what went right? It was a typical hype-and-backlash scenario, as I detailed in a previous post on MediaShift. Some journalists simply tired of SL, as so many people tried it and then bailed because of its steep learning curve and high technological requirements. But the journalists that have been more enmeshed within the world have been rewarded with plenty of cultural and sociological (and yes, business) stories. [...]

While Reuters thinks that the story has moved on from Second Life, CNN and many others beg to differ. The broadcaster now has an even larger presence in SL. Rather than send in a reporter as a corresponent in-world, CNN relies on SL residents to report their own news as citizen journalists for its iReport site. [...]