#134 - Where to find all the news that's "fit to print"

Social media is the talk of the town...and the blogosphere...and my grocery store checkout lane. I can't seem to escape it anywhere these days. I am often reminded of the famous line by Marshall McLuhan: "The medium is the message." Never have the words rung so true as they are for these times and this new "socially engaged" world. From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn to The New York Times, Mashable, and far beyond, there is so much information out there on social media - possibly more on the medium itself than anything else. Hard news is getting harder to find while reality TV, meaningless gossip and talk of the blogosphere is all over the place. I fear the medium is becoming the only message.

As I work on developing a series of workshops to help teach journalism students the importance of and techniques for leveraging social media into effective advertising, public relations and news campaigns, I find myself devouring hundreds of pages, sites and articles. I'm learning more every day about just how much there is to learn about the medium. Where would the average non-journalist even begin? I have some advice on that. You start by reading and you only read the best. Toward this end, here's a handy link to the current Top 10 Social Media Blogs, as published by one of the best - the Social Media Examiner (http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com), and reprinted with permission.

Take it from me, if you want to learn what's going on in social media today, then these are the online sources you should be following. Just click the link!

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/top-10-social-media-blogs-of-2010/

Life Lesson: To be better, start studying the best!

Post 100 - The Microsoft-News Corp Shakedown

Microsoft Corp has been in talks with News Corp about an agreement which involves News Corp being paid to take its news websites off Google, Inc. News Corp, which owns the Wall Street Journal and the Sun, among other publications and networks, started the current discussion. This is just the beginning stages of events which will carry big consequences - for consumers and corporate America.

News Corp Chief Executive Office Rupert Murdoch (you know, the guy who "owns" most of our media) has said he wants people to pay for access to his news sites. Other publishers, including The New York Times, are also searching for new ways to charge for online news, convinced that they must not "give out" the news through search engines like Google and Yahoo.

Microsoft has also talked with other online publishers about removing its sites from Google, according to the Financial Times. One website publisher was quoted, saying, "This is all about Microsoft hurting Google's margins." Microsoft relaunched its search engine under a new name, Bing, earlier this year. Since then, it has been seeking some way to challenge the market leader, Google.

Microsoft signed a 10-year global web search partnership deal with Yahoo, and that's a deal U.S. and European antitrust regulators are still evaluating. Both Microsoft and News Corp declined to comment when contacted by Reuters reporters. All sources are anonymous since the talks are not public.

These negotiations may change the way we get our news from trusted sources. Consumers have yet to indicate they (we) would be willing to start paying for news we've grown accustomed to getting for free. In previous posts, I've discussed the rise of popular sites like NowPublic, YouTube Direct, and other consumer generated media (CGM). I believe this is the wave of the future for journalism. I'm not exactly an expert, but I see a struggle coming. I'm betting on the consumer to be the big winner in the end.

In this new "always-on" age of digital technology, control of information (or power) is moving farther into the hands of the people. The rate of information being disseminated online is increasing at an unprecedented rate.

I'll do my best to keep you up-to-date on all the events that relate to media as they unfold. One thing is for sure, this is going to get interesting.

Source: (New York) Reuters.