Learning from the West
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Learning from the West 3 ways to improve citizen media in Belarus Evgeny Morozov/Transitions Online
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Learning from the West. 3 ways to improve citizen media in Belarus. Evgeny Morozov/Transitions Online. 3 ways to improve: a personal perspective. Increase the # of serious, analytical, investigative posts Legitimize blogging: from users with free time to users with smth to say - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of Learning from the West
Learning from the West
3 ways to improve citizen media in Belarus
Evgeny Morozov/Transitions Online
3 ways to improve: a personal perspective
• Increase the # of serious, analytical, investigative posts
• Legitimize blogging: from users with free time to users with smth to say
• Make the blogosphere more accessible/useful to journalists and other professionals
Life of a post written in English
Step I: Create a new post
Step II: Write the text
Step III: Tag it
Step IV: Post it to the blog!
But it also appears here…
And here…
…and here
And if somebody diggs it, also here..
And very likely also somewhere here…
But what if your post is really good?
Within a few hours, it would make it here…
…and here
…and here
…and here
And of course here…
Then it appear on pop. aggregators
And “buzz” aggregators…
And “human” buzz aggregators
And news aggregators…
Other bloggers will easily find it…
…and write about your post/blog
You might even appear on some community news programs…
Perhaps, even MSM will mention it…
Result: Slashdot/Digg effect
Observations?
• In 24 hours: from virtually nowhere to MSM • Increase visibility/popularity of one’s blog by
thousands of times• Establish connections to top blogs• Hard work pays off quickly; visibility cycle is
very short• Incentives to post go up tremendously, as
better posts lead to better visibility
Life of a post written in Belarusian
Write a post on LJ…
Repost it on minsk_by
…and a few other communities
…and hope that you’ll be featured in RFERL overview…
Or “Nasha Niva”…
But…
• You are still pretty much invisible to other bloggers
• There is no way for them to express whether they like or dislike your post
• They can’t easily share it with others• Very few of them use RSS, i.e. most of them
don’t actively search for info on selected topics, but rather read whatever is on minsk_by
Implications?
• Low incentives to post in general• Even lower incentives to write long, analytical posts• As a result, most bloggers write for the people in
their “friend list” on LiveJournal not even hoping to get global audience
• Many of them just write password-protect posts—which is almost unheard of in the West
Results?
Blogging culture that thrives on short and often very personal posts at the cost of longer and more controversial pieces offering social commentary
Busy people and professionals might be discouraged from blogging, since no matter how good their arguments are, they are given equal treatment by the rest of the LiveJournal mob
Hypothesis
As more content-meritocracy is introduced to the .by blogosphere, it will a) have better/deeper posts b) become more appealing to serious people
Other benefits
The more blogging and content-sharing tools are localized, the easier it will be for journalists, bloggers, and other professionals to take full advantage of the blogosphere!!!
Search better
Track the buzz/Hunt for Emerging Stories
Track trends
Track key people
Track key phrases
Track Full Conversation
Track full conversations II
Track both MSM/blogosphere
Track LOCAL conversations
Track Feedback to your stories
