

Study compares Reddit, Digg, and Del.icio.us to mainstream news sites - kkim
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6990033.stm

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ereldon
I don't get why this study is trying to draw big conclusions through comparing
stories published by mainstream news outlets and stories that are popular on
social news sites heavily, heavily skewed towards geeks.

As the cliche goes... apples vs. oranges.

The guy doing the study even says this about the inherently different foci of
the two:

"This technology bias was partly down to the fact that it was early adopters
of technology that lead the way when it came to 'playing with the potential of
the internet to empower users', said Mr Rosenstiel.

~~~
tx
Once "citizen journalizm" gains widespread popularity, expect reddit and digg
have their front pages occupied by Paris Hilton news, fart stories, soft porn
and updates on mysteries of Anna Nicole's tragic death.

Real crowds suck.

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bharath
"It found that the interests of users was markedly different to that of
traditional editors."

By saying this the author makes a couple of assumptions:

1) By users, the author seems to imply the same people who use mainstream
media. But really, in this case, "users" are dedicated communities built
around digg, reddit and delicious -- which explains the propensity for
technology related news items.

2) It could be that users dont prefer to promote mainstream news stories
simply because old school media is an existing reliable source of such
stories. For example, you could rely on BBC and CNN to report the latest
natural disaster -- digg and reddit dont have to do this for their users.

------
Goladus
_One of the biggest differences noted by the researchers was the emphasis put
on a single story. While the mainstream media tended to revisit the same story
from a different angle each day, users were happier dipping in to a variety of
topics._

That's a big reason why I basically just never watch the news on TV.

_"It was more hit and miss with a sense that they wanted to know a little
about a lot of things," said Mr Rosenstiel._

Which is basically like the format of BBC World News Today (if it's still
called that). It's a little bit about stuff going on all over the world. It's
just the news, without all the self-important analysts clogging up airtime
with commentary almost bad enough for YouTube.

