Everyone is blogging about the new credibility offered to us all by the TIME magazine "person of the year" cover story. Mack Collier counts 1300 — which is quite a sphere of influence! But Mack also has a great post analysing and questioning the outcomes of this new found profile. Now, I don’t really want to contribute to this debate as there is plenty already out there …
But Tara over at HorsePigCow has an article that runs in parallel to this. She is talking about "getting in front of a parade", and while her post has a slightly different focus, this rang a bell for me in relation to TIME.
Indeed, it was the first few questions that Tara herself asked:
What does it mean to get in front of a parade? Why not just join in? Why not just watch from the sidelines, trying to understand the meaning of the march?
This is what TIME has done. They don’t seek to know or understand or really ENGAGE in social media — at this stage they do not need to. They are just providing some navigation aids for an audience who need it while having some blog love rub off on THEM at the same time. What that means is that TIME can stand out in that sea of red.
S.
OK … I loved this photo and couldn’t resist using it!
that kind of reminds me of a feature that CNN runs sometimes where they try to see what “the blogosphere is talking about.” They literally open up some blogs on a monitor next to some dude who then talks about what the bloggers are saying. It’s probably the best literal example I’ve seen of old media completely not getting new media.
Great point and good post by Tara. The parade theme reminds me of a quote by college football coach Lou Holtz: “If they’re(the fans) trying to run you out of town, get out in front of them and act like you’re leading the parade!” 😉
Ha! Great quote from Holtz.
I do think that what we’re seeing is old media trying to figure out how to make money off new media. And they’ve definitely figured out one way, by pandering to them. They’ll definitely sell more copies than if they had given it to Ahmadinejad, or whoever.
And, they’ve already moved to the next step, where they’ll begin to integrate citizen media into their offerings. Pretty smart move.
I agree with the general sentiment about the TIME piece. Both the blogosphere and TIME sure love all the attention.
I found Tara’s article inspiring. Thanks for the link.
So many Santas in one place?!?!? I hope no young child ever sees this photo — I have a hard enough time explaining to my sincere Santa-believer why there are different Santas at different malls, and why the “Santa” at the local pharmacy also happens to works there and doesn’t have a beard. Here’s what I’ve come up with:
1. There are so many Santas because there are so many children in the world.
2. Sometimes Santas don’t have beards.
3. Sometimes Santas work at stores in town.
Whew. I wonder what tomorrow will bring in the Santa mythology department.
Nice work, adding your two cents, and no ‘link juice’ for Time. (I didn’t link to them either, although I don’t mind being named person of the year)