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09.15.05
Yahoo
Merging TV News With Ultra-Reality TV
 By
Jim Hedger
Yahoo is about to introduce its version of the future of news broadcasting, a
precursor to future offerings from the newly formed Yahoo Media division.
Starting on September 26, veteran war correspondent Kevin Sites will begin broadcasting
coverage of the world's war-zones exclusively through the Yahoo Media Group. The
first of several TV like programs to be produced by the Yahoo Media Group, Kevin
Sites in the Hot Zone will be sent to three dozen different war zones over the
next year.
Using a backpack and a notebook as his production studio, Sites plans to carry
up to 40lb of computer and satellite gear into conflict zones. He wants to show
the human side of armed conflicts by speaking to the people most affected by war,
innocent civilians. One episode will be based on the destruction seen by a family
in war-ravaged Somalia.
Sites became world famous last autumn when footage he filmed of a US marine shooting
a wounded Iraqi fighter in a Fallouja mosque was aired on NBC news. At the time,
Sites felt the NBC report did not inform its audience of the full context in which
the event took place, as noted in a November 21, 2004 post to his Kevin
Sites Blog.
That event, along with other constraints imposed by the nature of network journalism
convinced Sites to look for an alternative means of reporting on conflicts.
"As journalists we have to take full responsibility for our work, and sometimes
the medium we work in isn't enough," Sites says on his blog.
Yahoo is betting on two trends to sustain this form of broadcasting. The first
is the growth of the Yahoo Search Marketing and Yahoo Publisher Network divisions
and the second is the transition away from traditional media among younger viewers.
"It's not that young people aren't interested in news - it's just that they're
increasingly unfulfilled by traditional delivery of news," said Jack MacKenzie,
senior vice president of entertainment at Frank N. Magid Associates, a media consulting
firm told the LA Times. The Kevin Sites program "seems to have all the elements
that would be appealing to the millennial generation for which Yahoo is so popular."
Yahoo Search Marketing will serve paid-search advertisements along with news and
entertainment features produced by Yahoo Media. Meanwhile, the Yahoo Publisher
Network will eventually give web publishers the ability to work Yahoo produced
content into their own websites.
About the Author:
Jim Hedger is the SEO Manager of StepForth
Search Engine Placement Inc. Based in Victoria, BC, Canada, StepForth is the
result of the consolidation of BraveArt Website Management, Promotion Experts,
and Phoenix Creative Works. |
