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Second Life is not a game, its creators and residents insist, but rather a virtual world, with an ever-growing population. It attracts real-world investors like Harvard University, and real-world performers like Suzanne Vega. Brooke speaks with economists, gamers, politicians and journalists about the lure of reinventing the real-world online. And she goes inside to take a look for herself.
Slowly but surely, Congress members are waking up to the online citizenry’s ability to hold them accountable. As for the volunteer watchdogs, the reward may be more than a matter of virtue. This week, transparency advocates announced a bounty of $1000 for any person who gets their Congress member to post his or her schedule online. Bob speaks with Sunlight Foundation national director Zephyr Teachout about the “changing culture of citizenry.”
As the summer draws to a close, so does the season-long Internet mystery of lonelygirl15. Sixteen year-old “Bree” posted regular video logs about her life on YouTube, where a half-million viewers tuned in to watch what happened next. But it turns out Bree, 16, is really Jessica, 19, an aspiring actress living in Los Angeles. Brooke bids farewell to the lonely girl that never was.
As long as citizen journalism proponents have been pumping its merits, skeptics have been bothered by one question: Where will the funds come from? NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen thinks he has an answer, and is launching a website to test it. He tells Bob how NewAssignment.net will attempt to harness the experience of ordinary people to mount investigative projects that mainstream media just aren’t up to.
Last spring, blogger Ze Frank decided to try his hand at video blogging. He launched “The Show,” a two-minute daily webcast in which he riffs on whatever happens to be on his mind. And people are tuning in –at the tune of more than 100 thousand of them a day. Frank tells Bob that it’s not necessarily because of what they see there, but rather what they can do there.
For the uninitiated, lonelygirl15 is the summer’s internet superstar. YouTube users have been riveted as her story has unfolded over the course of twenty+ episodes. Fans are investigating lonelygirl15 and conspiracy theories abound but after a summer of investigation all the big questions remain unanswered. Virginia Heffernan is a TV critic for the New York Times but she’s been watching the small small screen too and she joins Brooke for a tour of the lonelygirl15 saga.
A recent gaffe by Virginia Senator George Allen suggested the ubiquity of YouTube may be a campaign liability, but to what extent can it be an asset? Indiana Senator Evan Bayh is trying to find out. He’s been posting videos of his speeches on the video-sharing site. And he’s created a Facebook profile, all in an attempt to woo younger voters. WFIU’s Adam Ragusea reports.
When the New York Times ran a series this week about the dark corners of online child pornography, the paper made a point of telling readers that it alerted authorities to illegal websites Kurt Eichenwald discovered in the process of reporting. It wasn’t the first time a child porn story forced Eichenwald, and the paper, to re-examine traditional source-reporter guidelines. Bob talks to him about the ethics of journalistic intervention.
