Oct 13, 2008 04:48 PM
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Tue Feb 9
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Newspapers have always been selfish when it comes to giving credit to anybody else for anything. Good reporters are always conscientious about noting when someone else broke a story, but as a rule of thumb, the more self-important a news outlet is, the less likely they are to credit a competitor (or anyone else) for a scoop. But everything has changed now! Thanks to the internet and how it is beating the shit out of newspapers. Are you ready for a revolution in how you consume your news? Click through for a glimpse of the future of information!
Newspapers—the forward-thinking beacons of journalism—have invented something totally new. Imagine this: you read the New York Times' website, and, abracadabra, you see a "link." This "link" sends you to a site that is not owned by the New York Times, where you can read information on a certain topic. NBC and the Washington Post are about to start doing it too! This could be big!
These experiments exemplify “link journalism,” an idea that is gaining traction in other newsrooms across the country. “It is a fundamentally different mindset” for journalists, said Scott Karp, chief of the Web-based newswire Publish2, who coined the term.
How about that: this dude actually invented the whole idea! Kudos to him! And apparently some of the most futuristic minds in all of the media were talking about this concept way back in June!
Jeff Jarvis, a prominent blogger who directs the Graduate School of Journalism’s new-media program at the City University of New York, has said that the culture of linking was creating a “new architecture of news.”
“Link unto others’ good stuff as you would have them link unto your good stuff,” he proposed in June. His “Golden Rule of Links” for journalists, naturally, earned at least 25 links from other bloggers.
If Times editors had any balls they would have ensured that this article was written in a tone of keen embarrassment. Particularly since its author is Brian Stelter, a former blogger who they hired because he was singlehandedly destroying every traditional news outlet on his beat. While he was a college student! He probably was not personally overwhelmed by the new-ness of this idea!
Do we need to start thinking about this "link" thing?
Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com.
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