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friendfeedAround the World in 24 Hours
Friday, September 12th, 2008
by Jeff
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Like it or not, we live in a changing world. In fact it’s changing so fast that some people can’t keep up, while others embrace the change easily and allow it to benefit them.
In the span of just one month, I have witnessed two major political players make national news from the relatively small city of Portland Maine. Both of them did so via the internet. Would this have happened ten years ago? Probably not.
On August 13th, I posted video of The Q Morning Show’s interview with Senator Susan Collins, where one of my partners, Lori, asked the senator what she thought about John Edwards affair. She was quite candid, going so far as to say “Don’t you think he is the father of the child?”
Within 24 hours the clip had made its way around the internet on various political blogs, including abc.com. The video was also shown on local television news stations, printed in the local paper above the fold two days in a row, and even made it onto Hannity and Colmes on Fox News. All this attention coming our way that wouldn’t have ten years ago when we didn’t have a video camera in the studio with the ability to record and post video to the web.
Almost a month later to the day, it happened again. WCSH’s Rob Caldwell had the opportunity to interview Senator John McCain. One thing you learn very quickly by watching Rob is he is not afraid to ask the questions that the American public wants to know, no matter who he’s asking.
Rob asked the Senator the tough questions, and he pretty much crumbled. When asked what experience Governor Palin have in the field of national security, McCain replied, “Energy. She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America….”And, uh, she also happens to represent, be governor of a state that’s right next to Russia. She understands Russia.”
Huh? Based on that logic, I understand Canada very well because Maine is right next to it, however I digress.
What I’m really trying to point out here is how mainstream media used to make news for the internet, but today the internet makes news for mainstream media. Our video of Susan Collins on a radio station made local and national television news from a post on a blog on the internet. The same happened for WCSH’s interview with McCain.
The irony of it is that both of these interviews were done originally using traditional media outlets, but didn’t gain national attention until they were posted to the internet. In fact, I didn’t even know about the McCain interview until I saw a post on Facebook about it.
If we didn’t do a web video broadcast of The Q Morning Show each day, Susan Collins comments would go largely unnoticed. If WCSH didn’t post their video to their website and allow other websites to embed the video into their own sites, Rob Caldwell might not be seeing his interview as part of Meet The Press on Sunday.
See what embracing a changing world can get you?
