European news interactivity index
Here is the European news interactivity index. Select a newspaper or country from the drop-down menus and you can compare any two newspapers or countries.
Sphere: Related ContentAdd comment April 29th, 2008
Friction.TV
Rating: 
What do they say it is?
“Friction.tv believes that disagreement - or friction - is a vital element for a healthy debate, to reach new insights and to find out what’s really going on in society. We need disagreement before we can start to find some answers… Friction.tv is unbiased, open and uncensored (except for explicit content)… empowers you to climb on the soapbox and voice your mind about any topic at any time. You can ignore mass media and bring out the issues that really matter… Friction.tv will provide an interesting and stimulating alternative to the sanitised, agenda driven mediocrity of the conventional mass media.”
What do I say it is?
A formulaic video publishing site that relies too much on the soapbox for its claims to be an alternative media platform. For example, it has sections for Politics, Education, Environment, Local Issues, Sport, Society, Entertainment, and sponsored channels. A quick comparison, some of the sections of Guardian.co.uk are News, Sport, Politics, Environment, Culture, etc… Some of Friction.tv’s main content providers are The Conservatives, Greenpeace, LBC Radio. The content is somewhere between Youtube and Current.tv, without ever quite feeling either spontaneous, timely, or usefully provocative.
What’s great about it?
The speed of the viewing interface, the breadth of voices, the open access for any editorial, and the narrow brief—issues that can be debated.
I’m pleased to be able to access , for example, the views of Ian Taylor MP, Chair of the Conservative Science & Technology Committee, “arguing why there should be a rationale debate over this country’s energy requirements” as much as to hear the views of the Washington DC students talking over the noise of the kitchen party about old white men in power.
And forgive me, but I do love the retro curved TV box to watch the video through. I also think the learnt navigation / interaction is great (once learnt), in that you need to roll over the video for the dynamic control box (pause, play, volume, FFWD etc) to pop up. It’s probably a good idea, too, to hide the controls and time counter in this way, particularly when you’ve clicked on a video from David Cameron asking “I think our relationship with America is vital. What do you think?” and the first minute is all about the situation in the Balkans. Who edited that one?
What could be better?
Which brings me onto… content. Of course Friction.tv is subject to the quality of the video and argument uploaded, and some of it… most of it… just isn’t worthy of debate. Some areas of the mass media are banal, celebrity, agenda-driven, dumbed-down versions of journalism. But that doesn’t mean I want an online video debate site to reproduce that same dilute and scattergun approach to content, particularly when that site is claiming to provide an alternative. A lot of the content is either advertising a belief or position, or simply soap-box raving, which does not engender debate. Friction, maybe, but there is a difference.
Take this ‘debate’ as an example. I chose this example for two key reasons. First, it was one of the advertised ‘hot topics’ on the homepage. Second, its headline ties in with what Friction.tv says about itself, providing alternatives to the ‘agenda-driven mediocrity of the conventional mass media’.
Under the title “Islamophobes: don’t believe the media” it is in fact a very softly spoken advertisement for the Edinburgh Central Mosque and activities they are running at the Edinburgh festival (I assume last August, 2007: the debate has been running for seven months, but is on the homepage as it is one of the ‘hot debates’ as it has gained the most comments, 799 when reviewing).
But a) it is not a debate, b) nothing in the video makes reference to why the mass media cannot be trusted, and puts forward no arguments, c) the comments are not a direct debating response, d) there is no response I can see from the makers of the video, and e) can a debate run for seven months? Not to mention f) what are the answers, what next, what happens now?
This seems a fairly typical example. The ratio of video responses for this story (1 out of 799) is also about standard. The people at OneWorld.tv tried this video dialogue back in 2001/2 but it failed. Maybe it was too early. Maybe Friction.tv is itself also a bit premature for video-to-video debate.
A couple of points on accessibility/usability:
- Every video does not have a transcript, which to meet good accessibility standards they should have. Of course this will be difficult, but it does mean Friction.tv is only for those who do not have a hearing disability
- The debates / comments publish last at the top; there is no right answer to this, but if you are trying to read the flow of a debate (rather than just a list of comments) then you need to constantly scroll up, down a little bit, back up, etc. The BBC publish comments from top to bottom. As do sites that encourage debate on their articles, such as OpenDemocracy.net. Another video site, current.tv, also do comments chronologically from top to bottom, so you can follow the debate (as an example view this debate)
- Are the Agree/Neutral/Disagree flags with the original video, or to the comment before, etc? What if the original video is not posing a particular question, or it is crowbarred to fit the format for the site?
- The ‘local issues’ tab also means happening locally, not necessarily local to you. Which needs sorting, as there is no way to sort what is local (i.e. within 50 miles or so) to me. So it immediately frustrates.
How is it going to make money?
The numbers game. The more views and comments, the more traffic, hence the benefit from remaining editorially removed from managing the hot topic choices, for example.
Also, Friction.tv has a number of channels (e.g. sponsored video feeds) from the likes of The Conservatives, Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, all organisations that want to create debate and will bring in traffic. These channels are actually one of the better things on the site, as they try (although do not always succeed) to frame the content within a for/against debate.
Should I pay it any attention?
Out of the corner of the eye, yes. Friction.tv is one of the easy to use video/TV sites vying for a position of notoriety and fame (and the advertising revenue) along with current.tv, youtube.com, green.tv etc, and could potentially to be the one to win the race. But with only two subscribers to its Youtube channel, it needs to rely less on the ideal of free speech to make its name and more on delivering some of those ‘answers’ that it talks about in its promotional blurb.
1 comment April 9th, 2008
Friction.tv
Friction.tv is inviting students to make submissions about international, national and local causes and issues they feel passionate about onto our site. We are an independent website with no affiliations to corporations or media organisations and our cont
Continue Reading 1 comment March 28th, 2008
Skimbit
"social decision-making tool to help research and make decisions online" What do you think of this one?
Continue Reading Add comment March 28th, 2008
Greenspun Plans ‘Category Crushing’ Web Portal - emedia and Technology @ FolioMag.com
an interactive portal of information on Vegas restaurants, sporting events, schools and “everything hyperlocal.”
Continue Reading Add comment March 27th, 2008
FriendFeed
Rating:
Paul Bradshaw looks at FriendFeed
What do they say it is?
“FriendFeed enables you to keep up-to-date on the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing. It offers a unique way to discover and discuss information among friends.”
What do I say it is?
Facebook, but uglier and more flexible.
What’s great about it?
It does what it says. The suggestion feature allows you to discover people and feeds you would otherwise not know about. Unlike Facebook, you don’t have to be someone’s friend to follow their stuff. The imaginary friend feature allows you to aggregate feeds. It has also released its API, opening up all sorts of possibilities for third party apps.
What could be better?
A more usable interface; some way to filter the information overload that comes from a river of feeds from anyone and everyone.
How is it going to make money?
Given it’s copied Facebook’s success so far, probably advertising. But also selling services to other clients who want bespoke apps, etc. may be another revenue stream.
Should I pay it any attention?
Given the hype so far, it’ll be hard not to. The impression here is of something that will continue to develop in an iterative way, particularly with 3rd party apps, so yes, watch it and see how it grows.
Add comment March 26th, 2008
CoverItLive
Rating:
Paul Bradshaw looks at CoverItLive
What do they say it is?
“CoveritLive’s web based software takes your next live blog to a new level. Your commentary publishes in real time like an instant message. Our ‘one-click’ publishing lets you drop polls, videos, pictures, ads and audio clips as soon as they come to mind. Comments and questions from your readers instantly appear but you control what gets published. Try our software for your next live blog. Your readers will love it.”
What do I say it is?
A Twitter-meets-chatroom-meets-poll that you can embed on your site.
What’s great about it?
The combination of different technologies makes for a compelling mix. In particular the comments feature transforms into a chatroom of sorts. Using this to cover JEEcamp I found users were chatting to each other about the event they were following, creating a second level of coverage and discussion. It also enables multiple author coverage (we had four authors posting on separate laptops simultaneously), and more easy and flexible embedding than Twitter. The polls are a nice touch which also enables more dialogue with ‘viewers’, and you can embed video and images.
What could be better?
They are working on searchability, apparently, and have already made it possible to export onto your own site. It has also crashed previously, while embedding may not be simple for everyone (it worked on a Wordpress-hosted site). Tagging and geotagging could be added. Adding images and video could be easier - integration with a live video service such as Qik would make this incredible.
How is it going to make money?
Once they have a foothold, advertising is an obvious option. But more promising would be a ‘freemium’ model where users can pay for extra features. Most likely we’ll see a combination, with the paid-for version being ad-free as well.
Should I pay it any attention?
Very much so. Publishers will find this incredibly useful in covering live events. Entrepreneurs should pay attention to what looks like a potential profit-maker.
Sphere: Related Content
1 comment March 26th, 2008
Mr Magic Lantern, Part II. Shedding a little light on the biggest challenge for us all - proving value.
Apologies if we go back to the same ’source’ material again. And this time, I’ll give the author his due
Continue Reading Add comment March 25th, 2008
links for 2008-03-25
£20m sound studio, Five and some large film corporation? Simon Howes on the Eastside blog is hearing rumours and is looking for clarification. (tags: media television eastside digbeth film) Radio 4 - Today - Fierce Festival 2008 Now there’s a media partner I wasn’t expecting. (ta Jez) (tags: fierce bbc radio4 today) Craig Holmes has a new web gallery covering the whole spectrum of his work. Compliments his blog well. (tags: photography craigholmes internet) Q&A with Mark Ball The Fierce
Continue Reading 1 comment March 25th, 2008
Wednesday squibs
From those corners of the web that I’ve been reading today: eufeeds. The tagline says it all: “over 300 newspapers, updated every 20 minutes.” An interesting, European aggregation of headlines, in multiple languages, providing a steadily updated snapshot of the news of the moment. The link above goes to the page of Portuguese newspapers; I count 25 other country pages. 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.5. Okay, here’s something else to get excited about. The upcoming new version loo
Continue Reading Add comment March 20th, 2008