Reality TV already established itself as one of the most effective media formats today and it is because of this reason that reality TV news online is taking a huge part regarding internet media domination. With the help of the internet technology, it is pretty simple how online news is being spread very fast and [...]
With all that it has to offer, the Internet is also a place that can be dangerous for children, despite the best efforts of high speed Internet providers. Pornography sites are everywhere - it can be worrisome letting your kids roam free online when you know there is so much damaging material floating around in [...]
Apparently this got some discussion a few weeks back, but I was just alerted to the fact that some European politicians have been debating how to handle the new media landscape that makes some odd and totally contradictory suggestions which the possibilities of bloggers becoming a problem by “polluting cyberspace.” While some of the argument has been blown way out of proportion, there are some things that are very problematic in the way the paper is written.
The oddest contradiction in the piece is the fact that much of it is concerned about the lack of diversity in media these days, and then it seems to see bloggers as a threat, rather than the solution:
“The cases of unrestricted ownership concentration or of scarce content pluralism in the media are endangering cultural diversity and freedom of expression not only within national markets but also at European level. We need therefore strong European commitment to overcome those challenges especially in view of the new technologies and services in the media sector.”
One would think that such politicians would then champion the rise of easy publishing platforms that allows anyone, professional or amateur, to join the game. Yet, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
“The blogosphere has so far been a haven of good intentions and relatively honest dealing. However, with blogs becoming commonplace, less principled people will want to use them…. We do not see bloggers as a threat. They are in position, however, to considerably pollute cyberspace. We already have too much spam, misinformation and malicious intent in cyberspace. I think the public is still very trusting towards blogs, it is still seen as sincere. And it should remain sincere. For that we need a quality mark, a disclosure of who is really writing and why.”
If I’m reading this right, it appears that these politicians are afraid of media consolidation, because it limits the diversity of voices — but at the same time, it’s afraid of bloggers polluting media, because that diversity of voices might be “bad.” Right. In other words, the real fear isn’t either the diversity of media or the rise of bad bloggers — it’s just that they’re afraid that speech they don’t like will become popular, whereas those who agree with them might get drowned out. That would also explain the ridiculous assertion that Europe needs a “right to reply.” A sort of cousin of the fairness doctrine, a right to reply is designed to let someone respond if a publication says something about them that they don’t like. This isn’t the first time this has been proposed in Europe. Way back in 2003, we wrote about plans in Europe to regulate bloggers with a demand for a right to reply.
The thing is, everyone already has a right to reply: your own website. A right to reply makes sense when there isn’t a way for you to reply. With the internet, however, that’s just not the case any more. And, yes, some people will say “but, if the original report is on a popular publication, and your site doesn’t get any traffic, then that’s not the same.” However, that’s inaccurate as well. In this day and age, if the media says something incorrect about you, and you write up your own thoughts, it seems that others are only too eager to hype it up and show the news report was wrong. You just need to let some other folks know that you’ve responded, and the word spreads pretty quickly.
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A new AOL survey has just predicted that over half of UK surfers will spend up to 3 years of their lives lost in cyberspace, hopelessly surfing without finding what they are looking for.
That’s quite a claim but I feel like I’ve already spent that much time endlessly finding broken links and dodgy information.
The average surfer spends 4 hours online each day, with an hour of that wasted looking for things without any luck. That adds up to 15 days a year and around 3 years in total based on the average life span. Still, it’s still less time than we spend in queues – 4.5 years apparently.
A third of those surveyed blamed the fact that the Net has too much information for the confusion while almost half claimed surfing the Web was very frustrating.
“It’s surprising that although Britons are increasingly net aware, we are still spending too much time tangled in the world wide web,” said Michael Steckler, managing director of AOL UK. “Britons are able to take advantage of many new tools to surf smarter and spend less time lost in cyberspace. For example, Truveo is a free video search tool which scans the entire web for your desired videos - but only a fraction of internet users know this kind of service exists to help them. Internet searching should be a pleasure, not a chore.â€
So, of your day, how much time do you waste lost in cyberspace? -Martin Lynch
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cyberspace has become the new front
line in the battle between Mattel Inc.’s Barbie line and MGA
Entertainment’s Bratz collection.
LONDON (Reuters) - Politicians are lost deep in cyberspace,
struggling to reach a new generation of tech-savvy voters
through blogs, social networking sites and video-sharing.
LONDON (Reuters) - Politicians are lost deep in cyberspace,
struggling to reach a new generation of tech-savvy voters
through blogs, social networking sites and video-sharing.
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s TAM said it is about to
become the first airline to promote itself in the Second Life
online virtual world by offering cyberspace flights that
correspond to its real-world international service.
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s TAM said it is about to
become the first airline to promote itself in the Second Life
online virtual world by offering cyberspace flights that
correspond to its real-world international service.
LONDON (Reuters) - Two out of three British Internet users
lose significant portions of their time to irrelevant web
browsing, a study said on Tuesday.