Blog The user is the editor
January 15th, 2007Asia Observer is relaunching - and has hired the members as editors.
Who should decide what news are important? In the classical media model the job was reserved for the editors. They gathered the news, edited the information and presented it to the readers according to some sense of what they thought was important for them to know.
But there is also another model which has exploded during the last couple of years - a media model where the users become the editors. Digg.com is one of the web sites depending solely on its users to select and sort the news. Another, which also has gained quite a good reputation, is Newsvine.
Are the two models at odds? Of course not. We need professional editors and journalists who are trained in sifting through tons of information and who are able to present it in a clear manner (I am a journalist myself, I must admit. And I don’t want to be unemployed!). But at the same time the collective wisdom of people who collaborate in a sincere and good way can give an important alternative perspective of the news and will even bring up stories that the mainstream media have ignored.
Asia Observer - a portal to Asia - is the latest web site to let the users to the job of the editor. The idea is to let users share articles they have found to be of great interest to people following news and developments in Asia. The users submit the articles to the others and then rate them. Articles on the front page are then sorted according to the votes of the users.
It is quite simple, actually, but still very powerful. Using the knowledge and entusiasm of others with the same interest is a fascinating way to learn more.
You should try it!
