CNN Goes Virtual
CNN announced today that they will be entering the virtual world of Second Life in an attempt to figure out “what constitutes news ‘in-world’”.
:::blank stare:::
Really? Is this seriously what CNN thinks is worthy of their time and attention? Who cares what is newsworthy in Second Life? It’s simply just one portion of the world’s population. And what guarantees that the people of Second Life even remotely give a damn that A) CNN is there, B) CNN cares about them, and C) CNN is going to report in-world news there. It seems like a stretch. A very unnecessary, and possibly probably unwanted stretch.
To add, “the network is encouraging residents of Second Life to share their own “SL I-Reports” about events occurring within the virtual world.” Granted, CNN accepts user-generated content normally, but this time around, users of Second Life will help CNN figure out what news is important to Second Life residents.
I hadn’t even heard of Second Life before the world of ICM 501 introduced me to it. Now, it seems I can’t avoid reading about it everywhere I look. As someone who is against the Virtual World deal, I don’t understand why CNN cares and why now? Second Life is a few years old now, and it seems companies are just starting to wake up to the fact that they should be getting involved. Kudos for ideas and wantings of progression, but honestly: How far is too far? And even more important: Why am I still blogging about Second Life? Arg.
Reuters has been reporting from in-world for about a year, and so that’s probably part of it: CNN doesn’t want to be the last organization in-world.
Why? For the same reason CNN would want to report from New York or Oslo. Imagine a city of several hundred thousand people, the vast majority of whom are members of the technological elite: wealthy early adopters, at least when compared with any other city. It seems strange that you would *not* want to be there as a part of the media…
introinteractive - November 13, 2007 at 2:50 pm |
Yes, I could definitely see that CNN wouldn’t want to be lost in the race for in-world news if other organizations and media were getting involved. That makes total sense.
You’re also totally right. It is strange that I don’t want to be there. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m usually all for anything new and interactive, so much that I’m usually made fun of by friends for getting *too* into things, but for some reason, I hold back on SL.
Nick - November 13, 2007 at 4:59 pm |