Fark.com: The future of news?
Adrian Holovaty spotted participatory journalism in action on Fark.com Sunday night and made some fascinating observations on his blog. He was watching the Super Bowl and saw the Janet Jackson flash -- though he wasn't quite sure what had happened (No, Adrian's not that innocent, he just apparently doesn't have TiVo).
"So I did what any self-respecting Internet-junkie would do: I flipped open my laptop and hit the Web. CNN had nothing. MSNBC had nothing. Neither did the New York Times, Washington Post or Chicago Tribune. Google News didn't say anything about it, either. I checked a bunch of other big-media sites but couldn't find any coverage.
"I began to think I'd just been delusional. Then I checked Fark. In my estimation, it'd been less than 15 minutes since the halftime show ended -- and Farkers were already talking about it.
"Fark.com -- a deranged mix of quirky news-article links, hilarious Photoshop antics, incestuous user comments, and a healthy dose of porn -- had the story.
"Fark.com -- a deranged mix of quirky news-article links, hilarious Photoshop antics, incestuous user comments, and a healthy dose of porn -- had the story. In my estimation, it'd been less than 15 minutes since the halftime show ended -- and Farkers were already talking about it.
"The thing is, despite Fark's classically low signal-to-noise ratio, it wasn't all prepubescent blather. I daresay some of it was participatory journalism in action.
"Read the archived comment thread to see the story unfold. There were first-person accounts of watching the event. There was background information. There was analysis and piecing-together of the facts. And, most importantly, there was an effort to distribute any and all raw information about the incident, mostly in the form of high-resolution TV-screen-grabs and video.
"It was clear that all of this was fueled by a desire to get to the bottom of the story -- a desire not unlike that of a professional reporter.
"Could this have been a glimpse of the future? Could a much more traditional news story be covered in the same way, given the right mix of a dedicated audience and enabling technology?"
Of course, before long Farkers were commenting on Adrian's comments:
Said "lordargent": "This could be the next evolution of fark. Farker wire I mean, we've got thousands of users, when a newsworthy event happens in someones town, they should run out and take pictures of said event. Then distribute pics via fark. The Associated Press better watch it's ass."
Probably not a threat to AP, but if someone figures out how to harness this beast, look out...
Feb 04, 2004 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(0)
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