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 Those
of you who take great pleasure in the concept of citizen journalism
already know much about Ohmy News, the still experimental South Korean
Web site that anoints all who participate as citizen journalists.
According to reports the site attracts as many as “800,000 unique
visitors and up to 2 million page views a day.” Ohmy News publishes
about 150 stories daily. It claims one third of these entries come
from professionals and the rest from citizen journalists under the red
pencil of professional editors.
For me, Ohmy News has always been about excess, a lack of news
judgment that a reporter learns through experience. Because not
everyone who contributes to the site is a journalist, in my eyes it is
a failure. I say this because every story does not have and cannot
have the same weight. Once everything has equal significance, it means
everything is the same. We know that is not true. The site claims it
has 50,000 potential contributors. In no way are there that many
qualified journalists in South Korea and probably not anywhere in the
world. The site is aiming for 100,000 contributors. Despite all those
numbers, the company faces a problem that many in the news business
confront daily. Ohmy News had a small profit for three years, and then
in 2006, it fell into the red. There is competition in South Korea.
There is competition from around the world. And fewer people seem
interested in reading what its huge staff writes.
Ohmy, the same as all media, old and new, depends on advertising, and,
to keep afloat, the sale of its content. That is not happening at the
rate the owners wish. Ohmy is expanding into Japan and there is hope
that move will help create a new revenue stream. There seems to be no
answer as to why revenue is slow to come. In the expanding digital
age, it is possible no one any longer cares about what Ohmy is
selling? Only time will tell.
Normally the film critics for The New York Times leave me feeling
empty. They often say too much about too little. Do they realize they
write for a daily newspaper and not critical niche journal? However,
once a week in the Times, there is a column called “Critic’s Choice:
New DVDs” by David Kehr. It is easily the best piece of critical
writing about film found anywhere in the paper. Kehr reviews the
latest releases on DVD of films, many of which, until the release,
have been difficult to find. He usually writes about one or two
exceptional films, discusses those, the directing, the acting, the
cinematography, and the quality of the re-issue. His columns should be
required reading for anyone interested in film.
About TV. “St. Elsewhere” begat “Chicago Hope” begat “E.R.” begat
“Grey’s Anatomy.” Only now the producers use soft rock that often
drowns out the dialogue to tell the audience the emotions we should
feel. In television, that is progress. Welcome to the virtual world.
Do you watch weather reports on local TV? I am sure we all do that to
see how to dress the kids and ourselves the next morning. Do you
understand what the weather announcer, sometimes a trained
meteorologist, is saying? I do not. I rarely understand what the
weather is going to be where I live. There are so many graphics, so
many competing systems, such flash and what I assume is a hint of hype
and a touch of dishonesty, is it any wonder that I get my weather from
the Internet? At least on the Web it is unleavened, honest and direct.
It is, in other words, a blessing.
Witness coaches on the sidelines during the televising of college
sports, especially basketball and football. During March Madness I
watched their gyrations. See how they scream and yell at their
players, the officials and anyone else within sight of their wrath.
These people are sideline animals who seem to believe the game is
about them. After all, they get the big money, and their players,
usually nothing. I always thought the game was about the players on
the court or on the field. Then watch coaches in movies about sports
and you will realize where the isolated writers in Hollywood get their
information. I must be naďve for sometimes thinking otherwise.
The new executive producer of “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams”
says she will try to recruit Ann Curry, Tim Russert, Tom Brokaw and
Keith Olbermann, and maybe even others in the NBC News stable, to do
occasional pieces that will conclude Mr. Williams’s show. That is
admirable but unworkable. It is an assumption the audience wants to
hear what those people have to say about the events of day. For anyone
who watches in the evening, it is obvious that none of the network
newscasts gives enough news in its 20 or so minutes. No evening
newscast is exempt from criticism. They spend too much time on
features and what they want us to believe is an explanation of the
day’s events. Perhaps the answer is more news and fewer features.
Perhaps the answer is less op-ed and more stories.
Finally, there are these final or end lines from recent commercials. I
will not identify where they come from. You guess if you can. Here
they are anyway.
“Nice truck.”
“Shouldn’t you be doing this?”
“That ought to do it.”
“Good to go.”
Question: how many of these will insert themselves into the popular
culture and still be around years from now?
........................................................................................................................
At NBC News for 35 years, Ron Steinman was bureau chief
in Saigon, Hong Kong and London, was a senior producer on Today and wrote
and produced for Sunday Today. At ABC News Productions, he produced
and wrote documentaries for A&E, TLC, Discovery, Lifetime and the
History Channel. He has a Peabody, a National Headliner award, a
National Press Club award, a International Documentary Festival Gold
Camera Award, two American Women in Radio & Television awards and
has been nominated for five Emmy's. He is a partner in
Douglas/Steinman Productions, whose latest documentary, "Luboml: My
Heart Remembers," aired on PBS' WLIW/21 and the History Channel in
Israel, April 29, 2003. He is the author of, "The Soldiers 'Story",
"Women in Vietnam," and most recently, "Inside Television's First
War: A Saigon Journal," University of Missouri Press, 2002. |
