Life beyond print: Newspaper journalists' digital appetite
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How To Become 'Easy to Use' Online
Easy to use Web sites distinguish themselves by delivering the amount and complexity of information their users want without overloading them. The key to offering the right amount of information is understanding the target audience.
MMCDigiMe
Monday, July 07, 2008
Making News Interactive at Newsvine.com
(Tracey Robinson-English) -- Newsvine.com, an interactive news site, is an intriguing Web innovation that gives users an instant reflection of what the world is chatting about at any given moment.
"You just read an Associated Press story about the fiery riots in France on a major news site. Why shouldn’t you be able to comment on it like you would on a blog entry?" said Mike Davidson, the site’s co-founder and CEO during a Media Management Center seminar on digital strategies earlier this year. "At Newsvine, you can. Why shouldn't you be able to chat about it with whoever else happens to be reading the story at the same time? At Newsvine you can … right within the story itself."
His news start-up incorporates content from Associated Press, New York Times, CNN and other mainstream media into an online package with arguably greater design, readability and the latest social media features, making it one of the better marriages between old media and new media.
(MSNBC was so intrigued by Newsvine that in late 2007, it purchased the company. Davidson continues as CEO of Newsvine, now a wholly owned subsidiary of MSNBC interactive News.)
Davidson noted that Newsvine users determine the content by voting on what they believe is important. So, what you see every day on the site is based on the online community's actions, he said.
"There is no editor behind a desk deciding what stories are most important," the site claims. "You decide that. Whenever you see a story on Newsvine you think is important, simply click the 'Vote' button next to the headline and you’ve just increased the importance score of that story. We feel that thousands of people are better at deciding what’s important than one."
Watch this video for more of Mike Davidson's comments during the MMC seminar.
What do you think? Please share your thoughts, experiences and reactions by clicking on the comment button below.
Tracey Robinson-English, a Northwestern alum of Medill and the School of Communication, is a consultant to the Media Management Center.
