Old Media Don’t Get It
Posted By John Moore on March 29, 2003
Last week I was pleased to discover that I could get live streaming feeds from the network cameras in Baghdad. These were available from CNN and ABC with a purchase from Real of their “RealOne SuperPass.”
This is a revolutionary concept. Rather than providing news as an editor sees fit, or even the live news from commentators, they were allowing the viewers to watch the raw news, totally unedited, as it happened.
So I signed up. My thought was to leave the video running on one of my monitors while I was working. And it was most interesting… yesterday’s bombing of the information ministry almost knocked me out of my chair as the normally quiet speaker suddenly came to life.
Unfortunately, it seems that neither CNN nor ABC understand the value of this service. Their edited, TV-on-the-web services appear quite reliable, while the live feed is not. ABC’s Baghdad camera hasn’t worked since yesterday. CNN’s Baghdad camera had no sound when I first tried it. Today, it had sound for a while, but it has stopped. Note that both of these feeds are from the same camera which is commonly seen on the news networks.
Obviously these old media companies don’t understand! Some of us would rather watch the news as it happens rather than only see what their editors select, when their editors choose. Haven’t they noticed the web-cam phenomenon over the last several years?
If the companies understood this new media, they would keep their live camera feeds working. They might even have more of them. They might experiment with ways to make money from this new media.
President Bush has indicated that when
Iraq has been secured, he intends to
split the country into 3 provinces:
Leaded , Unleaded , and Diesel …