Sounds great. At least a bone to the promise of the Internet as public platform.
However... the reporter may have slip a few misconceptions... 1. “But it’s part of a trend of the big tech platforms beginning to look at how they can help to repair the news economy that they disrupted” The “news economy” talked about doesn’t need repair especially because it was NOT democratic at all. What needs promotion is alternative, democratic channels of information and that’s one of the promises of this Bulletin platform 2. As to potential risks of “amateur news reporting,” well, how about the “clear and present danger” of FOX NEWS and other “professional news reporting?”😈 Actually it’s not even desirable, in my opinion, to call “journalism” postings by “amateur” individuals - I’d rather refer to them as “testimonials,” thus avoiding the whole poisonous “fake news” Trump-ed up soup!😈 Regards / Saludos / Grato Andrés Leopoldo Pacheco Sanfuentes > On Jan 26, 2018, at 11:53 AM, Yosem Companys <ycompa...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Google Is Testing a New App That Would Let Anyone Publish a Local News Story > > By WILL OREMUS > > JAN 26, 201812:36 AM > > Google is testing a new tool for people to report and publish local > news stories, called Bulletin. > > A website first spotted online Thursday describes Bulletin as “an app > for contributing hyperlocal stories about your community, for your > community, right from your phone.” It’s designed to make it > “effortless” to tell “the stories that aren’t being told” via your > smartphone. It’s not just for techie early adopters: “If you are > comfortable taking photos or sending messages, you can create a > Bulletin story!”, the site says. > > The app is in a “limited pilot” in just two cities: Nashville and Oakland. > > Google confirmed the project Friday morning. “This is very much in the > testing phase and aimed at hyperlocal stories and events for people to > share, and for local media to take advantage of,” spokeswoman Maggie > Shiels told me. “People everywhere want to know what is going on in > their own backyard at a very local level, ranging from local bookstore > readings to high school sporting events to information about local > street closures.” > > Sami Cone, an author and blogger, reported via Twitter that she had > been invited to Google’s announcement of the new tool in Nashville on > Thursday. (Hat tip: Stefan Constantinescu*.) She published a blog post > and a smartphone video of the launch event on YouTube. > > The announcement appears to have flown entirely under the radar of the > national media and tech press—perhaps illustrating a point that Google > hoped to make. Both Oakland and Nashville have burgeoning tech > industries and are Google Fiber cities. But they also have high > poverty rates and lie beyond the klieg lights of the big media hubs. > > A Google spokesman at the Nashville launch event, whom Google > identified to me as product manager James Morehead, described Bulletin > in the video as a progressive web app—a website that looks and > functions like an app. “Creating a website, creating a blog is a > pretty high bar for a lot of people,” he said. So a team of designers > at Google asked the following, he said: > > What if it was effortless to capture these stories publicly from our > smartphones? What if it was possible to publish them instantly to the > web without having to do any setup? And what if it was accessible to > anyone in our community. So, not just the people we know—there are > excellent tools for connecting content to people we know. But > connecting content to people we know and to people we don’t know but > who share a particular interest. That’s what we’re trying to do with > Bulletin. > > It sounds like a super-lightweight content management system, aimed at > amateur journalists or anyone else who wants to live-blog a news event > or report a news story in a way that has a chance to reach a broad > audience. Examples from the presentation included “extraordinary > volunteers,” “high school sports,” “weather events,” “civic meetings,” > and “social justice,” among others. An app screenshot on the Google > Bulletin site shows a post with the headline, “Winter storm floods > river, wipes out Nelson Road.” > > Morehead said the company will work with local news organizations to > help them find and potentially publish some of those stories, giving > credit to their authors. The author controls the content and can take > it down anytime they want. > > It’s hard to say without more information how useful this will prove. > But it’s part of a trend of the big tech platforms beginning to look > at how they can help to repair the news economy that they disrupted. > Facebook this week began testing in Olympia, Washington, a local news > and events page that highlights stories from local media. > > There’s been a lot of hype over the years about how tools such as > Twitter and Facebook mean that anyone can be a journalist. But > Google’s tool could make that more of a reality than a myth. It’s true > that social media posts can go viral, but that’s usually when they > have national or global appeal of some sort. Google appears to be > looking for a way to help people publicize worthwhile stories of more > modest, local interest, which has not been one of social media’s > strong suits. There are also, of course, some risks involved in > promoting amateur news reporting. The potential for misinformation is > probably higher when the reporters lack professional credentials or a > news organization to verify and stand behind their work. It’s unclear > what kind of editing, if any, will be a part of the undertaking. > > It’s easy to see the need for such a tool, however. For people without > a large following, even a newsworthy tweet or YouTube video can fall > flat. Just look at Sami Cone, who as far as I can tell had the world > exclusive on the launch of Google Bulletin. At the time that I wrote > this, her tweets about it had garnered just one like; her YouTube > video, 11 views. > > *Update, Jan. 26, 2018, at 12:10 p.m.: This post was updated to add > confirmation and comment from Google. > > *Correction, Jan. 26, 2018, at 12:10 p.m.: This post originally > misspelled Stefan Constantinescu’s last name. > > > > https://slate.com/technology/2018/01/google-is-testing-bulletin-an-app-that-would-let-anyone-publish-a-news-story.html > -- > Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable on Google. Violations of > list guidelines will get you moderated: > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, > change to digest, or change password by emailing the moderator at > zakwh...@stanford.edu. -- Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. 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