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Blogging, Celebrities, Journalism and You
NOTE: If you're a tech geek, the interesting comment on "How IM could make money is at the end". The body of this sets the context.
I had an interesting if surreal experience last night that brought home to me the nature of blogging and journalism. Here's what happened. A few weeks earlier I added an IM name for a celebrity (i.e. an actor, actress or newscaster) to my AOL Instant Messenger. It was the kind of thing you do when you are just messing around and think "I'll never see them online but just in case...". Well, wouldn't you know someone with that AOL screen name popped up like magic. I hemmed and hawed a bit myself and thought "what the heck?" and asked them:
Me: "Excuse me, could I ask you a question?"
Them: "You may".
Me: "I noticed your name and I had to ask if you were someone I might recognize"
Them: "Yes".
We ended up chatting online for over 4 hours. While I will definitely admit that this could technically have been anybody, this felt real. And there is no doubt in my mind that this person was who they stated they were. In the course of this conversation they revealed things to me about real world Hollywood life that I found shocking. And damn little shocks me. It was one of those experiences where you find yourself alone with someone in a strange place and you just start talking and the normal barriers fall away.
Journalism
This brings us to journalism. If I was a journalist I think that I'd have posted that Instant Messaging transcript on my blog already. I know that it would bring a bunch of web traffic (this person has fans). And the ring of authenticity that I saw would carry thorough to any of their fans. I'm not sure if it would be a huge news scoop or not but it would definitely be newsworthy. So this brings me to the question as to whether or not I am a journalist. I'm really not sure. On the one hand, it was definitely an interview but on the other hand I came to see this person as that -- a person. And people have feelings and can be hurt. When this person asked who I was, I sent my personal home page links and blog to them. They saw that I was a real person too. I wouldn't want to abuse that level of trust. If this makes me not a journalist then so be it. Also this wasn't a scheduled public chat. The best analogy I can come up with is running across someone in a small town coffee shop and, because you are the only one who knows who they are, they respect you for that and don't mind small talk for a bit.
So am I a journalist? Am I just a decent human being? Or is there some new middle ground?
If You're a Celebrity
If you are a celebrity of any type then I offer you some hints as the ease of publishing through blogging is making a brave new world:
- Recognize that anything you type into a computer can be sent to someone else. We know this with email. We generally fail to recognize it with Instant Messaging.
- If you don't want to be quoted on anything then say so upfront.
- Consider starting a blog yourself as a way to talk to your public.
- Be careful. Not everyone is decent. I know a lot of bloggers that would have posted this transcript before leaving their computer to get a glass of water.
If You're a Fan
If you're a fan and someone takes the time to talk with you then I recommend:
- Good manners.
- Be respectful.
- Be polite.
- Recognize that they aren't online to talk to you (I offered several times "if you need to do other things...")
Comments
Don't bother asking who this person was or for the transcript. I'm not telling or sharing.
Technical Questions and a way for IM Vendors to Make Money
It seems as if this IM centric world raises real questions when someone doesn't want to be quoted. In the real world at least you can look for the tape recorder. Over IM there is no tape recorder. Here the tape recorder is hidden, is silent and is pervasive. Here's a thought for how IM vendors could make money:
- Offer a new IM client, say AOL IM Pro or Yahoo IM Pro (I don't know their version #s).
- Offer a command for the person talking to set an option "I don't want to be copied".
- Make it so that the copy command when this option is set only lets the user copy the lines they typed i.e. I wouldn't have been able to copy their text.
- Charge for this IM client on an annual basis but make it so that the charge is tied to the activation of the command via a license key (this would set a version bit with the data stream) that altered how the copy command worked.
- Build this change copy command feature into your next IM release and then add the Pro version in 3 months after people have upgraded.
Yes this approach can be defeated by repeated screen captures but no one is going to do this continuously for 4 hours. And it could be defeated by network monitoring. Who cares? No security is absolute. This could be a very powerful way tool to make money. Heck, I'd pay $29 for this feature. Would you?