Social Media in the news, indirectly

Myspace blog is news.

Saw this on the Drudge Report, but TheAtlantic.com’s Marc Ambinder has a story about Maria Luisa, a student that asked a pointless question during the last political debate, and has now commented on it in her blog on myspace.

What she wrote is kinda controversial. I’m not here to talk about the content of the controversy, just that a news source is using myspace blogs for information. (notice how I said that, ‘the news source’, vs. the blog) I’m not saying anything against blogs, I love blogs, some of my best friends have blogs, I think everyone should have one. The point is that new media content is newsworthy, and the ‘real’ news agencies are finally figuring that out. Even if reluctantly.

And this is just the latest example. Other examples… what video did the news programs show of the Virginia Tech shootings? Video taken from a cell phone. What video did we get of the Saddam Hussein hanging? Cell Phone.

The term “New Media” takes on new meaning when comparing it to ‘old media’ such as television news, more often called the more kindly, ‘traditional media’.

This just the beginning. Recently there was an earthquake in the Bay Area in California. As shown on Mashable.com, Twitter was the first indication there was a quake, and it rolled up the New Media chain from there. Eventually, well, about a half hour later, the news organizations finally let us know.

Disruptive? You bet. A good thing? Absolutely.

Viva New Media

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Thanks for stopping by!

--Jeremy Vaught

Tagged as: bay area earthquake, blog, cnn, marc ambinder, maria luisa, myspace, New Media, saddam hussein, twitter, virginia tech