Where Now for Collaborative Journalism?
Kathy Gill,
About.Com,
Jun 22, 2005
I'll give them credit for trying. The Los Angeles Times attempted to include readers in their online content by setting up a wiki where readers could rewrite the day's editorial. The experiment lasted one day, and then was pulled, as they said, "due to defacement." This analysis summarizes pretty well what happened. First, when they introduced the wiki, "the focus was on the Times and The Law, not the readers and contributors." Second, "editors seeded the wiki -- a tool designed for collaboration -- with one of the most divisive 'news' topic possible (the Iraq war)." Third, "wikis need a community of passionate and involved netizens" and the Times didn't have such a committee nor did they try to create one. Fourth, perhaps they should have required logins. And finally, why use a wiki to "reply" at all - comments can do that.
Today: 5 Total: 101 [Direct link] [Share]
