Tweeted debate: does it have any significance for democracy?

So, the first tweeted presidential debate. This week the AP reported that Current TV will let its audience have their say by publishing their live Twitter comments on screen; now the news is doing the rounds on the blogs.

During the debates, the station will broadcast Twitter messages (or tweets) from viewers as John McCain and Barack Obama go head to head.

It’s all certainly a lot further on than when the first ever debate went out on television: on September 1960 26, when 70 million US viewers watched senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts word-battle vice president Richard Nixon.

Current TV, which is extremely pro viewer interaction, was actually co-founded by Al Gore, though the channel says ‘Hack the Debate’, as it has become known, was not his idea.

An article over at the Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) says, of the Nixon-Kennedy debate, “Perhaps as no other single event, the Great Debates forced us to ponder the role of television in democratic life.”

So, does Twittering and instantaneous (as much as it can be) viewer feedback have anything like the same significance? What’s the role of the internet here in democratic life?

Also, comments will be filtered to fit in with broadcast standards: does this change its impact at all?

Tags: Al Gore, Barack Obama, John Kennedy, John McCain, Massachusetts, Museum of Broadcast Communications, presidential debate, Richard Nixon, tweets, Twitter, United States

Editor&Publisher: US newspaper websites worth up to 450m, says study

The websites of the largest newspapers in the US are worth an estimated $300 million to $450 million, according to new analysis from Borrell Associates. Full story...

Tags: Borrell Associates, United States, USD

CNN mangles Hurricane Ike headline

Over on Wired Journalists, Rafael Sangiovanni, web producer for the Miami Herald, was quick enough to grab and post a shot of CNN’s questionable headline as Hurricane Ike hit the US.

Hit or miss?

(It’s certainly not going to be a hit for search engines and it looks pretty awkward in my opinion)

Tags: CNN, hurricane, Hurricane Ike, Miami Herald, United States

When Twitter goes bad: newspaper tweets a funeral

US newspaper The Rocky Mountain News has come under scrutiny for its use of microblogging tool Twitter.

The paper has been using the service to provide news alerts with its @The Rocky account, but recently experimented with an individual reporter twittering from the funeral of a 3-year-old.

“Rocky reporter Berny Morson filed live updates from the memorial service of 3-year-old Marten Kudlis. The messages are unedited,” reads the editor’s note accompanying the article on the death of Marten Kudlis, who was killed in a car crash last week.

Michael Roberts at the Latest Word blog points out that the updates are ’self-satirizing in the most morbid, inappropriate way possible’.

“Morson’s not to blame for the lameness of these entries, which suggest a golfing commentator whispering at green-side while Tiger Woods lines up a putt.”

Questions have been raised about the appropriateness of Twitter coverage before, but usually centring on its suitability as a medium for coverage e.g. does the event require frequent updates or can it wait? Covering a funeral - that’s proprierty gone AWOL.

Tags: Berny Morson, Marten Kudlis, Michael Roberts, The Rocky Mountain News, United States

AP offers digital analysis to members as papers bypass agency content

The Associated Press (AP) is to give its newspaper partners access to reports on digital trends in the industry, in an arrangement with research firm Outsell Inc.

A release from the AP said the free service will help newspapers to understand online developments, such as web traffic measurement and online advertising issues.

Reports will be sent out quarterly and are free to AP member papers as part of the agency’s new Innovation Toolkit service.

In recent weeks a host of US newspapers have served notice on their membership with the AP, as the Editors Weblog reports, most responding to recent changes in pricing by the agency.

Some papers have grouped together to bypass AP content, while according to BuzzMachine.com, New Jersey’s Star-Ledger published an entirely AP-free edition yesterday.

A comment from Paul Colford, from the AP’s corporate communications department, on the BuzzMachine post said:

“We understand that The Star-Ledger and the media industry as a whole are facing difficult financial challenges and that in this environment many newspapers are experimenting with news priorities and with their presentation of news. The Associated Press has been working with all members of the cooperative, including The Star-Ledger, to determine their needs and to ensure that the AP news report retains its value to them and their readers. Member Choice, the content and pricing initiative rolled out this summer, was in fact developed as a response to member requests for simpler content and pricing options.”

Tags: Associated Press, Outsell Inc., Paul Colford, The Star-Ledger, United States

RSF: US reporter released from Nigerian custody

US filmmaker and reporter, Andrew Berends, has been released from Nigerian government custody. Full story...

Tags: Andrew Berends, Nigerian government, RSF, United States

Media Guardian: Esquire’s electronic cover unveiled

To celebrate its 75th year US magazine Esquire has unveiled the cover of its October issue, made partly of electronic ink. Full story...

Tags: electronic cover, esquire, guardian, United States

Forum4Editors: Guardian blog chief Kevin Anderson on his social media US roadtrip

Anderson will use a host of social media tools - including Twitter, Flickr and Dopplr - to report on the US presidential election during a 4,000 mile country-wide trip. Full story...

Tags: Kevin Anderson, social media tools, United States

Digital developments at CNN: Gustav raises traffic, as new international digital role is created

CNN’s web traffic did rather well out of Hurricane Gustav: a press release issued yesterday told us that breaking news channel CNN.com Live ‘more than doubled its highest day on record on Monday, by serving more than 1.7 million live video streams globally’.

That figure represents a 124 percent increase on their previous highest day - February 21 - when it streamed the debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

In other news, another release announced the appointment of CNN’s first vice president of international digital services: Nick Wrenn, current managing editor for Europe, Middle East & Africa. Although based in Atlanta, Wrenn will manage all of the digital content outside of the US in his new role, bringing together CNN.com/international and mobile with its broadband services.

Wrenn will report to Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International.

“Our digital services are playing an increasingly important part in the growth of CNN International and this new position ensures that they will be leveraged and incorporated into our current business appropriately,” said Maddox in the statement.

Tags: africa, Atlanta, Barack Obama, broadband services, CNN, CNN International, Hillary Clinton, Hurricane Gustav, International Digital Services, Management Change, Middle East, Nick Wrenn, Tony Maddox, United States, web traffic

Guardian material on paidContent:UK

As a result of Guardian News & Media’s acquisition of ContentNext, Media Guardian content has started to appear on paidContent:UK. Just recently the same occured vice versa: the appearance of Paid Content articles on the Media Guardian site.

In July, Journalism.co.uk reported that Guardian News & Media had bought ContentNext, behind paidcontent.org, paidContent:UK and the Indian news site contentSutra.com.

An early report by the Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD column reported that according to sources it was a figure ‘north of $30 million.’

The deal marked a ’significant expansion’ of GNM’s US presence, a press statement said at the time.

Tags: ContentNext, Guardian News & Media, Journalism.co.uk, news site, paid content, The Wall Street Journal, United Kingdom, United States, USD, Wall Street Journal