Online news sites powered by ordinary users offer different points of view

by mtippett | July 1, 2008 at 12:53 pm | 279 views | 2 comments

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I recently did an interview with the Canadian Press. Here is an excerpt from the final piece:

But the website's founder, Michael Tippett, says objectivity is less important than ensuring readers have access to as many points of view as possible.

"(Just as) you come to respect a journalist who writes for a news organization because you recognize that news organization itself has credibility, you can look at the NowPublic members the same way," says Tippett.

"It's not necessary that one person is completely dispassionate about a subject. ... We believe that if you have a number of different points of view represented in a story, that the truth will emerge."

Sites like NowPublic can't compete with the resources of traditional news outlets, says Tippett, and that's not the point.

Rather, Tippett says the goal is to supplement - not replace - what's already out there.

"Our view is that traditional media makes us better, and we can make traditional media better," says Tippett, whose site recently inked a deal with The Associated Press to share eye-witness photos and videos.

"There are so many people in the world who are able to, in many cases, beat traditional media to the scene of emerging news."

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Caoimhin1

at 13:47 on July 1st, 2008

good stuff:

mtippett, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Rob Peters

at 15:37 on July 1st, 2008

I like the point you make about multiple points of view leading to truth. In a philosophical sense I think that's a good way of reframing the problem of relativism (if everyone's right, how can there be one single truth). With a few exceptions (sociopaths, Hitler, perhaps), it implies everyone is partly right, but no one is God. That seems about right to me.