I’m sure it will happen soon enough.

I hope the traditional journalists eventually tire of trying to compete in the social media domain and focus more on what they can do in this vacuum you’ve identified. Andy Carvin’s work is an excellent example of this. He has turned the social media channel back around into a verification tool. It isn’t just about broadcasting. And Wolf Blitzer reading what often seem like random tweets into his broadcast is a simply miserable attempt.

I’m a news junkie who would gladly tune back into traditional channels if they dared to innovate when it came to thinking about their role. Through social media our view of history has literally turned into the model of “one damn thing after another.” I think there’s plenty of room yet in that space where these minute-by-minute tidbits are stitched back together into a genuine story that reveals something more about how life is lived, battles won, and obstacles overcome.

I’m a reporter who made the leap into tech, building a citizen photojournalism platform launching in the next few weeks. I spend a lot of time thinking about this very issue, and I think you’ve really hit the nail on the head.

Social media is revolutionary because it compresses the eyewitness information cycle to nearly zero. 10 years ago (or really, even 5 years ago) reporters would have to hustle to find eyewitnesses — calling nearby shopkeepers, going to the scene and trying to round up people on the street, etc. Now, you can simply search for people broadcasting from the event and talk to them instantly.

Social media doesn’t fundamentally change the work reporters do: We still discover, vet, structure and report credible information. The big change with social media is the pressure to be instant, because your competitors are instant. So, the first draft is a little messy.

I like to imagine a spontaneous news event like a pebble dropping into a pond. Who witnesses the event? And how does the account of that event ripple out? How far does that ripple go? Some events are so big, everyone in the world knows about it within the hour.

It’s physically impossible to be at the epicenter of every news event, every time. The promise on the horizon is that we’ll be able to experience every event live, from the perspective of eyewitnesses there at the scene. That vision requires a radically different kind of social network — one that’s married to location, not keywords. We’re building that network.

Again, great article. This is an important topic.

A Platform to Help us to Distinguish Our Quality vs. Quantity Friends, Fans, Followers, and Companies

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Flickr and others have been doing a decent job of providing additional marketing exposure and even in some cases, additional revenue. However, as more and more social networking sites pop up, how do you manage your brand across all these channels? Maybe more importantly, which one of these sites should you select as the one that will help you best reach your target audience? The proliferation of the social media avenues is becoming overwhelming.

This glut of information reminds me of the early 90’s when WWW was adopted broadly by the general public. Every company rushed to have a presence, to the point it became literally impossible to find the right information on the Web. That’s when a better generation of search engines – at first the Yahoo! and then Google – entered the market and helped us find the most relevant information by just typing simple keywords in their search box. If you had asked before Google launched, if there was a need for another search engine – most would have said no, we already have those….

Then came Web 1.0 & 2.0 – Youtube, Flickr, myspace, Facebook, Twitter and countless others have turned everyday people into content producers, influencers and experts. We basically tripled down on the information overload How do you know which channels to select for deploying your social media strategy? How do you know which one is the right channel to let your fans and followers to find you, your products, and services? Most importantly, who is Joe Smith that is recommending that person, that company, that product?

I hope my awesomize.me can accomplish such a mission. The site is not another social networking platform. Yet the portal to all your existing social media channels. The platform helps you, your fans, your potential clients to make an intelligent decision as to which company to connect to or follow via which social media channels and why? It’s free!

Elias
CEO & Founder
http://awesomize.me