What is Digg?48 Comments
- Irishsmurf, on 05/09/2009, -1/+37''Solutions are scarce, and our democracy is at risk''
DEMOCRACY IS UNDER ATTACK
Alert the programmers! We have work to do! - mckirkus, on 05/09/2009, -2/+16I'm a programming journalist guy and built something to replace monopolistic newspapers which works like Digg but it's structured more like a newspaper. Just San Diego, for now. My theory is that the big monopolistic city paper will be replaced by a bunch of smaller news orgs after the dinosaurs die, and something will need to aggregate it.
Harsh criticism would be appreciated so I can fix things.
http://newsdiego.com/ - SpeedSteamBoat, on 05/09/2009, -0/+10Step 1: Hire a real designer to give your site a professional, polished look.
You can thank me later.
But I appreciate your effort. I too am a technology minded journalist type. I'm not sure where this is all headed, but I'm excited to be a part of it. - Pinkertinkle, on 05/09/2009, -0/+8Journalism is dying. Saving democracy is up to bloggers now. God help us.
- DrZmobie, on 05/09/2009, -2/+10...what?
- breakspirit, on 05/09/2009, -0/+8Everything is too narrow, looks really crappy on 1920x1200. None of the stories yell "HEY CLICK ME!" They're just bland text on a bland webpage. I like how it's more or less clean looking, but it could use a little polish. Good work, though.
- tenio, on 05/09/2009, -0/+7seems really cool...too bad I don't have much of a flair for writing
- InetRoadkill, on 05/09/2009, -0/+6One problem I see is having access to the news makers. The greatest need for actual journalism today is keeping an eye on the power brokers in office. The MSM no longer fills this roll and has become complacent and complicit with the abuses of power. I suspect that those in power would simply turn away any truly independent journalist in favor of the far less critical MSM members.
Unless the hacker journalist can establish a large audience or get hired by large news organization willing to support maverick reporting, I'm not sure what this is going to accomplish. Those who need to be held accountable will just brush them off. - diggdiggerid, on 05/09/2009, -1/+7Perhaps they mean "news," because journalism in this country died a long time ago with a few very rare exceptions.
- Javy42, on 05/09/2009, -0/+5Agreed. Great concept, poor layout.
- maroger, on 05/09/2009, -0/+5Needs subtitles or descriptive blurb. Titles aren't relevant enough. Good concept.
- grantmoore3d, on 05/09/2009, -0/+5Is it sad that I was able to read that just as fluently as this sentence?
- rahga, on 05/09/2009, -0/+4Reminds me of my side work... What's the difference between a photographer and a pizza? A pizza can feed a family of four.
- thenativeraver, on 05/09/2009, -3/+7Wh3R3 d0 1 4PP|Y?!!11
- mckirkus, on 05/09/2009, -0/+3Thanks for the feedback, going to brew coffee and see if I can fix it today. The stories are ranked by popularity and I haven't really told anybody about the site yet. But it looks like Diggers coming from this thread have pushed the StarTrek story to the top spot :D
- mine4321, on 05/09/2009, -0/+3Most journalists realize early on that they can't pay their bills and feed their families in journalism... and so, switch to a different profession.
- spectecjr, on 05/10/2009, -0/+3So just exactly under this scheme, how do the journalists get paid? Or do they all blog, and then NewsSanDiego gets cash money for scraping the web for all their blog posts?
I'm just wondering. Journalists - you know, the ones actually doing the work - deserve to get paid for it. - majkeli, on 05/09/2009, -0/+3I should leave my high paying, fun, and challenging job as a developer and live as a poor student for a year followed by life as a poor journalist for forever. Very attractive.
- disappointed, on 05/09/2009, -0/+3They might hire someone to hack into Paris Hilton's phone and find pictures of her vagina though. Journalism will save democracy.
- mckirkus, on 05/09/2009, -1/+4Existing newspapers are aggregators, they just employ all of the content creators (journalists). If newspapers weren't dying there wouldn't be a need for this. When you have eight small news outlets that don't link to each other a need exists.
The key word you used is "typically". There isn't much typical about what's happening to the newspaper industry right now. So my reply is that Newspapers and magazines typically do things like, I dunno, make a profit.
Journalism isn't dying. I think this era marks the beginning of real journalism. - Ramenhood, on 05/09/2009, -0/+3Wow, this would be a great opportunity..
- spectecjr, on 05/09/2009, -0/+3That's not a newspaper replacement. It's a news aggregator. Typically newspapers and magazines do things like, I dunno, hire journalists... pay them to write articles... you know, /report/ the news instead of just collecting it from various /other/ news sources on the web.
- BlackJackJester, on 05/09/2009, -0/+3This article liberally uses the term "hacker", in it's 1980's context to mean one who 'hacks' out code.
Sorry, CNN isn't hiring people to crack into the CIA to find the 'truth' about 9/11. - spectecjr, on 05/10/2009, -0/+2Again, if the era of for-profit journalism is dead, then these news aggregator sites are just scraping money away from the people who do the actual work.
Not exactly fair by any stretch of the imagination. - Protonz, on 05/09/2009, -0/+2Do people still believe that the sacred cow of democracy is a good thing?
- astroslut, on 05/10/2009, -0/+2I really appricate the effort. Keep it up.
- maeon3, on 05/09/2009, -0/+2Interesting, I would like a full scholarship for a year.
- mckirkus, on 05/10/2009, -0/+2"So just exactly under this scheme, how do the journalists get paid? Or do they all blog, and then NewsSanDiego gets cash money for scraping the web for all their blog posts? I'm just wondering. Journalists - you know, the ones actually doing the work - deserve to get paid for it."
I think you'll see more sites like VoiceOfSanDiego.org pop up. It's a non-profit that the NYT did a story on. I think the era of for profit journalism is dead, it didn't die earlier because non profits couldn't afford to compete before the Internet made distribution free. Trust is going to become more important. It's easier to trust non-profits.
Why is everybody so hostile to the notion that journalists might be able to eat in a world where the printing press (and associated business model) is obsolete? The transition may not be compatible with 30 year mortgages but competition among news outlets can't be a bad thing. - gfryesc, on 05/09/2009, -0/+2when did the press hold government accountable?
- AriaStar, on 05/09/2009, -0/+2It's the internet. Pretty much everyone with a blog thinks of himself or herself as a journalist.
- stereosaurus, on 05/09/2009, -0/+2I double majored in journalism and computer science, kind of wish I got a scholarship to do it...
- Griff431, on 05/09/2009, -2/+4var= "The_Question"
IF "The_Question" = "To be"
THEN RUN "Life"
IF "The_Question" != "To be"
THEN RUN "DEATH"
ELSE RUN 'Surf-Digg.exe'
Why coders should NOT be writers.... - TINZUSA, on 05/10/2009, -0/+1I'm a great coder and a great writer, currently laid off for being too darn good! How do I start?
- hiPpymIck, on 05/09/2009, -0/+1you could maybe include a Twitter search for San Diego
when i do London it throws up all sorts of stuff - some of it quite interesting - and its very up to the minute
dunno how youd filter out all the garbage tho - advanced search i guess
oh and like your newshound at the top - acrodev, on 05/10/2009, -0/+1DemocraC has been fragged by BigCorp. Respawning in 5 seconds...
- mckirkus, on 05/09/2009, -0/+1Good idea, it's now on the todo list. I sketched the dog and a guy from Disney made it look good, sorta Plutoesque no?
- mckirkus, on 05/11/2009, -0/+1"Again, if the era of for-profit journalism is dead, then these news aggregator sites are just scraping money away from the people who do the actual work."
News.google.com aggregates news on a national/global level. The AP is suing them "The AP believes that desperate times call for desperate measures and that means demanding royalties from any company profiting from any aspect of their content. When Google links to an AP story in a search result with an Adwords ad on the page the AP expects to be paid. "
I'd argue that charging people for linking to a site is a bit ridiculous. In that case Digg likely wouldn't even exists. I imagine that Journalists that truly create exceptional content will continue charging for access while providing a summary to entice people to pay.
Is Google Adwords "scraping" money away from the NYT when links to it show up on a popular search? - mike215, on 05/09/2009, -0/+0you have some syntax errors there
- richgor, on 05/09/2009, -0/+0If you have a high-paying, fun and challenging job now, keep at it! But if your job is just high-paying (little fun, little challenge), I will bet you a job in journalism might be a great alternative. As for pay, while I'm sure there are more lucrative opportunities in many fields, I feel quite confident that Brian Boyer is being paid fairly for the job he's just taken at the Chicago Tribune:
http://hackerjournalist.net/2009/05/07/got-a-job/ - richgor, on 05/09/2009, -0/+0Your description of what newspapers have been doing in recent years is fairly accurate. It could be that ultimately all of the newspaper companies will fail. But I think some will adapt, and part of what they'll need to do is develop better Web sites and interactive applications. In the places where newspapers fail (and places where they succeed), there will be opportunities for coder-journalists to help invent new interactive platforms and publications.
- FreeZoot, on 05/10/2009, -0/+0As a fresh journalism graduate with strong coding skills I can inform you that most papers, and TV stations for that matter, don't care about hiring people with any coding skills. They want the same people they have been hiring for years. They just want to look like they are solving the problem so that people will leave them alone.
- Grueslayer, on 05/10/2009, -1/+1Why would hackers want to "dance with the devil"? Hackers want truth out there for everybody... journalists want to sway "truth" to favor their own political agenda.
- rahga, on 05/09/2009, -1/+1Journalism is not in danger, and it will not be saved by coding journalists. Most newspapers, however, are in danger. Publicly owned newspapers are closing because stockholders don't understand that it is okay if a company they own shrinks rather than grows. Rather than scale back operations (because a shrinking paper can't pay off multi-million debts, and stockholders only value growth), they close up shop, fire everybody, and sell off the parts.
The current model means pulling in as many advertisers as possible, and expanding coverage enough to support all those advertisers. In one sense, it sounds good, but the quality of the product weakens. You wind up publishing stories about Betty Lou's Wonder Pig at the county fair. When the economy tanks, like it does now, advertisers insist on lower rates or simply stop returning your calls. On top of it all, the internet is providing a new path for your customers to get their news. The website has much lower overhead than your print product, but the ad rates are much lower. For a typical small newspaper, it's much harder to get an advertiser to spend $100/month on a web ad that it is to spend $100 on a single-day newspaper ad. Like it or not, average people still "see stuff" in the paper. They don't happen to surf the local news site so much, typically because the product is lame.
Newspapers that want to survive really only have one option at this point: Reduce coverage, charge more the ads you have. Like it or not, most would indeed rather die than scale back, and the vast majority of them really do believe things will get back to normal soon. (Disclaimer: These thoughts don't apply to privately owned newspapers, which my or may not employ me.) - SpeedSteamBoat, on 05/09/2009, -2/+1This article kind of sucks. Not only does it state the obvious, that journalism must embrace technology to survive, but it can't even seem to do so without the doomsday rhetoric about democracy being at risk.
People want news. People want journalism. The industry is changing rapidly, but it's not dying by any means. There will always be a market for journalism. The details of how it is delivered aren't going to change that. - EEdesigner, on 05/10/2009, -2/+0Take an average programmer. Give them a lobotomy. They'll then only be slightly twice as intelligent as a journalist. Programmers have to produce ideas that actually work. Journalists go around thinking that the Obamaloon can actually think.
- techdever, on 05/09/2009, -6/+3for(;;) diggdown();
- twistedwriter, on 05/09/2009, -8/+5Because when I think of Pulitzer-winning, in-your-face journalism that cuts to the heart of issues and holds our government accountable, I think of Tim The Code Monkey in engineering. Go get 'em, Tim.
- Jeepinator, on 05/09/2009, -10/+5Stupid.
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