Sky Witness - New Site from Sky News
October 28, 2002 4:24 AM   Subscribe

Sky Witness - New Site from Sky News Yet another another example of "big media" embracing audience involvement. Sky is asking people to "tell us in no more than 300 words how a particular news event touched your life," including eye witness accounts, and photos. The "most compelling" entries will be published on a special site at the end of the year. Anyone who has read the 9/11 Metafilter thread will know how extraordinary such commentary can be. Anyhow for the wordsmiths here, this could be a great opportunity to show just how clever you are ;-) My question to MF - how far can this go - should, or will big/national/local media open up far more to audience involvement?
posted by RobertLoch (5 comments total)
 
how wonderful - this is exactly the thing i've been looking for - in fact i cant stay to chat because i have to go and work on my compelling eyewitness account right now!
posted by carfilhiot at 4:45 AM on October 28, 2002


"Audience involvement" is a nice idea in principle, but the comments and the submission screen make it sound much more like they're running a contest in order to get people to do the reporting for them, and not at all like they're trying to create a community. No interaction between people, no way to say anything that might allow you to develop an on-line persona, comments limited to 300 words. This is just an extension of the "man in the street" interviews that news outlets already use. I expect it to be completely filled with "there was smoke everywhere, it was just horrifying" type of comments.
posted by fuzz at 4:59 AM on October 28, 2002


MY ADVICE - Attention is Media lifeblood. Don't give major media your attention!

Withdraw your attention. Turn off the TV. If we all do this, the obscene, bloated fungus that is corporate mainstream media will just shrivel up and blow away.
posted by troutfishing at 5:25 AM on October 28, 2002


'No interaction between people, no way to say anything that might allow you to develop an on-line persona, comments limited to 300 words.'

I don't think that they are trying to create a community. They are just asking for short account of how a news story made you feel, or if you witnessed something, what you saw.

I agree that a community serves that purpose quite well, but this is still an interest concept, especially if it were to be extended a bit. News has always been a bit one dimensional, any effort to add context, or a grassroots perspective, gets my vote.
posted by RobertLoch at 6:47 AM on October 28, 2002


The cynic in me says "free content".
posted by elphTeq at 3:19 PM on October 28, 2002


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