An email from HuffPo announcing “a new community powered section called HuffIt” landed in our inbox today. It invites you to join the community by registering with the site and “[v]oting for stories you think should be on the Huffington Post”. So it is the latest publisher of news, online and off, to join the social media craze.
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The driving force behind the buzz is the thinking that the public “have different expectations about the media they use and expect to be able to find and use their voice to participate in the community around it”. From a business perspective, if you have more engagement you have more loyalty, which will translates into more revenue, as communities will be “very attractive environments for advertisers” who’re convinced of the long-term benefit for their brands. |
Web purists would say that the whole idea goes against the more philanthropic side of web culture. But they miss the point. In a digital economy, the essence of the “long tail” is the “non-monetary economy”, in which producers offer their work free of charge. This is the paradox of the post-modern marketplace, which might turn out to be the most fascinating long-tail effect of all.
In practice, it smacks the end of journalism as we know it. However, in a broader sense, it’s the nature of journalism that’s evolving. “Where the authority of editors used to be in being in charge, it is now in participating and building a relationship and credibility with users in a more direct way.” The function of a journalist nowadays is “as much about responding and blogging as reporting.” Are we at the dawn of Journalism 2.0?