NMK 2007: BBC admits it can learn a lot from YouTube and social media

Web 2.0
Share

nmk-logo.jpgToday’s NMK 2007 conference in London saw a panel session on ‘Media, Publishing and Advertising: Old Guard, New Tricks’ which discussed how Big Media is facing up to the challenges and opportunities of social media.

The debate was certainly candid. BBC New Media’s Jem Stone admitted that the Beeb hasn’t involved people as much as it could have, and that it can learn a lot from social media and YouTube. Meanwhile, CNET’s Tom Bureau said that “high-value knowledge users” can complement professional journalists on big websites.

Our own Ashley Norris ruffled feathers by claiming that the mainstream media is still snobbish about social media and the blogosphere, pointing out big newspaper websites routinely nick stories from blogs without crediting their source, while even the BBC doesn’t give enough respect to British blogs.

“They need to wake up and realise that there are people out there who possibly have better opinions, and are more informed, that old school media journalists.”

The audience at the debate was suitably sparky too, chewing over the issue of whether big-name journalists should be pushed into blogging for their newspaper’s website, or whether the newspapers should focus on finding talented bloggers to augment the content from their existing journos.

The conclusion? New media isn’t killing the old media, but neither is it a runty upstart that can be ignored. But for now, the two sides make for uneasy bedfellows. Read the latest from NMK via Kat’s liveblog post.

NMK Forum 07 website

Related posts
NMK Forum 2007: liveblogging from London
NMK 2007: Jason Calacanis’ Mahalo Greenhouse will pay YOU for writing search results

Stuart Dredge
For latest tech stories go to TechDigest.tv