To: "Michael J. Alloy" 
cc: Vin Crosbie , online-news@marketplace.com, 
    ace@tidbits.com, c@well.sf.ca.us
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On Mon, 24 Oct 1994, Michael J. Alloy wrote:

> On Wed, 28 Sep 1994, Vin Crosbie wrote:
>=20
> > At 16:22 EDT on 27 Sep 1994 Adam C. Engst wrote:=20
> >  >  >  >  >  >  >  >  > Sorry, Adam, I don=92t know how old you are. But I do know many of  us =
lost=20
> > good friends in a certain exotic international location from 1964-74.=
=20
I remember seeing the coverage of the vietnam war.  When it started I was
8 years old.  The television showed soldiers bleeding, prisoners of war
being beaten, and men chasing an invisible enemy.  It didn't make sense,
if violated my beliefs, religion, and trust of others.  After the news,
Bugs Bunny and Uncle Miltie made us laugh, and the June Tayler dancers
filled the screen with ballet.  By 1973, I was reporting to the draft
board.  I didn't go, but several of my friends ended up in the Rangers.=20
The main focus of the press was still the shocking images of blood and bomb=
s.
Uncle Miltie was off the air, replaced by shoot-em-up detecive shows and
obligatory car chases (even in the cartoons).  The June Tayler dancers
(their equivalent) could only be found in XXX rated movies that I was too
young to see.  I wasn't to young to kill, just too young to see naked women=
.
After the war was over, we discovered that the reason we couldn't find
"charlie" was because "charlene" would go skinny dipping after greasing an
officer.  The national hero was a woman, and GIs would lose their brains
when they saw pretty naked women in the river.

Why was the 18,000th gunfight news, and the efforts of the peace corps
were completely ignored.  Why was football worth 40 hours of television
time and the issue of wife battering ignored until O.J. Simson was arrested=
?
Why was the trial of Nixon worth 70% of the available news time and the
advent of the Personal computer didn't even merit a regular column in
Popular Electronics.

Imagine if you had bought 100 shares of Apple in 1976, or 100 shares of
Microsoft in 1981, or 100 Shares of Novell in 1982, or 100 shares of MCI
in 1980, or 100 shares of Sun in 1984.  Any one of those would make you a
millionaire today.  We'd rather watch train wrecks and complain about how
we don't make enough money and there's nothing we can do.

> > Come to think of it, there=92s a lot of 18-40 yr. olds nowadays who=92v=
e=20
> > unexpectedly visited exotic Grenada, Panama, Kuwait, Somalia, and now=
=20
> > Haiti these past years.  Like you, at home they probably loved sports, =
Dilbert,=20
You've missed some of the really hot spots like South Bronx, Watts,
Detroit, Chicago, and Miami.  LA did make the papers the day of the Rodney
King riots.  We lose more young men to drug related deaths (accidents,
drunk drivers, turf wars, overdoses, suicides, homocides...) each year than=
 we
lost in all of Vietnam.  You won't see that war in the papers.

Children are incested and molested every day, it took Michael Jackson to
get anybody to cover it.  Surprise, sex offenders were getting out after
two years and killing kids (Megan Law).

> > and the comics and would have felt much better not being =93continually=
=20
> > confronted by that level of death and atrocity that seems to be what=92=
s=20
> > considered news.
When that death and atrocity becomes the main staple of enterntainment and
news, the atrocity loses it's power to shock.  In fact, you end up with 6
year old kids watching Rambo and the News, looking forward to the next
bloody body.

> > And until the day they found themselves wearing=20
> > dogtags at those datelines, they probably wondered why newspapers=20
> > bothered to print such stories.=20
The blacks, hispanics, and poor whites often wondered why the violence in
some far away country was news when they had seen so much worse in their
own back yards every day.

> > I don't want to sound (too much) like I'm leading a sacred cow, but not
all=20
> > newspaper stories are chosen because they are in demand, are salable, a=
re=20
> > comforting, or because people want to read them.=20
Ironically, the war coverage and megaviolence is salable, and not too
contriversial either.  Just don't look too deeply.  Those asked WHY we
were in Vietnam, Cambodia, Persia, or Bosnia were give very little copy.

> > Which leads to these questions: Will a future =91personal newspaper=92,=
 one with
> > contents solely chosen by its reader, lead to an ignorant and unprepare=
d public?
> > And is that very question either elitist or crucial?
Actually, when people chose the content that interests them, they will
probably be more likely to get active and involved.  This is especially
true with interactive media.  My postings in this news group have shown up
as full blown articles by other authors in mainstream publications.=20
People are more likely to really THINK about and get involved with what
they are interested in and can do something about.

> > Vin Crosbie                             crosbie@well.com=20
> Far from being elitist, the question of mass distribution of information=
=20
> is one of the central challenges of targetable media.
=20
> Farm Journal offers its print subscribers dozens of different editions=20
> aimed at a variety of farm specialists.  Yet all of the readers, whether=
=20
> dairy, corn, wheat or rice farmers, retain a common interest in weather,=
=20
> water, the economy, soil treatments, insecticides and all of those other=
=20
> issues that come up without our being able to predict them.  If the Farm=
=20
> Journal were to neglect the commonalities, the farmers would be isolated=
=20
> from each other, as well as their marketplace of suppliers and buyers.
How tightly do you tune the filter?  Who decides to tune the filter.  The
internet user may find himself referenced to general information in a
primary focused story.  If he follows that thread, it's his choice.

How many people read every page of a newspaper?  My mother used to spend 2
hours reading the Rocky Mountain News cover to cover.  Kennedy read two
newspapers cover to cover.  How many others do that?  What percentage of
what comes over "the wires" do you put in print?

=20
> Likewise, if we target so successfully that our *readers/users* can=20
> escape from the awareness of common issues, we risk losing the awareness=
=20
> of common opportunities and common responsibilities.  The synergy of=20
> learning about undreamed-of activities of our neighbors all aside, we=20
> cannot escape from the realities of common issues, no matter how we try=
=20
> to pretend that ignorance is safety.

Interactive media is only one form of news.  We would get the general
overview from broadcast (most of which can be spoken in 15 minutes).

> Should it come down to a news alert *question of the day* floating=20
> through the electronic services acting as a prompt to look up news
Actually, DJ uses a "hot" indicator.  People who want to see hot news add
that to their profile.  Obviously, hot has to be used with reserve lest it
lose it's meaning.
=20
> reports?  And isn't that, after all, one of the functions that news=20
> advertising interspersed in commercial and entertainment broadcasts=20
> offers now?

We include the Press Release newswire which, quite simply is 90% raw
advertizing, or at least the opportunity to include advertizing.  For
almost any profile I create, about 1/4 of the stories that come out are
press releases and product announcements from PR.  It's one of the busiest
wires every day.

> Perhaps the future of our commonality depends as much on our ability to=
=20
> sell information -- advertising -- as it does on gathering it.  And=20
> perhaps we should look forward more to how to enable advertising to fit=
=20
> into electronic media instead of how to keep it out.

Absolutely.  Imagine being able to tell your advertizer that his ad will
yield 30 sales per 1000 viewers.  On PR newswire, we include phone contact
information for the company.  The number is often used by readers who
want a sales brochure.  Imagine if the brochure were on-line too!

Any experienced web-cruisers know how easy it is to follow a thread right
to the point of downloading a product which you will pay for when you
confirm that it has value for you.  Future browsers will be able to bill
your credit card.

We will also be seeing something like a stock market for practically
everything from shoes to automobiles.  The competitive nature will be to
provide unique, custom services.  The generic PC could fluctuate within an
hour as a competitor receives a shipment an another reaches the end of the
inventory.

Federal Express once predicted that we would do 75% of our shopping
on-line and order merchandise to be delivered the next day.  The retail
business would stock as much diversity as possible and simply order the
right size on-line.  Catalogs would be on-line as well with 2000 styles of
shoe that could be delivered in your size within 24 hours (if you're a
man, ask your wife about that).  It's better than having your own personal
tailor.  Maybe we should just charge comissions :-).

=09Rex Ballard.
=09(Personal Posting)



From rexb Thu Oct 27 18:51:56 1994