reinkai (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} reinkai) wrote,@ 2008-10-06 11:29:00 |
|
Something good in Second Life?
Jason McMahon
Social Responsibility in the Media
10/6/08
It’s not often that I see any active attempts to give balanced information on the upcoming election, so when I do see it I find it to be quite notable. Second Life is a game in which the player takes on the role of a person and does everything that they could be doing in the real world, except they don’t have to leave their computer. I personally don’t have much (any) respect for Second Life users, but in this case I feel the need to say something nice.
Steve Nelson of Second Life’s Capitol Hill has installed a display which shows the tweets about both main presidential candidates and their running mates. A tweet is something from www.election.twitter.com, which is a site that allows users to post the newest news stories with links about the election. The display searches every minute for the names Obama, McCain, Biden, and Palin. If the user touches the display it will give the full posts so that the user can click on any links.
I think that this covers a lot of the good things that we’ve discussed in Social Responsibility in the Media. This is a pretty good attempt to inform people by delivering a non-biased message and analytical facts. The fact that most of the things posted there are user-based and as a whole not affiliated with any particular party or political spectrum means that the readers get a good array of opinions.
This also nurtures good decision making though giving people an easy way to get informed on the issues and see both sides of things. If people are committed to living a second life in a video game, they probably wouldn’t want to take the effort to actually go out and do some research on their own, so having a balanced and fair way to learn about the issues without having to log off means that a lot of people might end up getting out of their mother’s basements and vote. Yes, I hate Second Life that much.
The Tweeter coverage is also following the third principle of being responsible in the media, which is being fair. It doesn’t pick and choose what gets posted, which means that people get to read both sides of the issue as well as the corresponding dialogue and debate about it.
Overall, I think that this is a really good way for people to get balanced coverage on the upcoming election, and would definitely say that Steve Nelson is making a good thing happen.
Jason McMahon
Social Responsibility in the Media
10/6/08
It’s not often that I see any active attempts to give balanced information on the upcoming election, so when I do see it I find it to be quite notable. Second Life is a game in which the player takes on the role of a person and does everything that they could be doing in the real world, except they don’t have to leave their computer. I personally don’t have much (any) respect for Second Life users, but in this case I feel the need to say something nice.
Steve Nelson of Second Life’s Capitol Hill has installed a display which shows the tweets about both main presidential candidates and their running mates. A tweet is something from www.election.twitter.com, which is a site that allows users to post the newest news stories with links about the election. The display searches every minute for the names Obama, McCain, Biden, and Palin. If the user touches the display it will give the full posts so that the user can click on any links.
I think that this covers a lot of the good things that we’ve discussed in Social Responsibility in the Media. This is a pretty good attempt to inform people by delivering a non-biased message and analytical facts. The fact that most of the things posted there are user-based and as a whole not affiliated with any particular party or political spectrum means that the readers get a good array of opinions.
This also nurtures good decision making though giving people an easy way to get informed on the issues and see both sides of things. If people are committed to living a second life in a video game, they probably wouldn’t want to take the effort to actually go out and do some research on their own, so having a balanced and fair way to learn about the issues without having to log off means that a lot of people might end up getting out of their mother’s basements and vote. Yes, I hate Second Life that much.
The Tweeter coverage is also following the third principle of being responsible in the media, which is being fair. It doesn’t pick and choose what gets posted, which means that people get to read both sides of the issue as well as the corresponding dialogue and debate about it.
Overall, I think that this is a really good way for people to get balanced coverage on the upcoming election, and would definitely say that Steve Nelson is making a good thing happen.
