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Pegasus News has dubbed this effort we, and they, are up to "wedia", as in, "we [are] the media."
Which is fine -- indeed, a crisper name than, say, "citizen journalism," but I had to think about it a second; my first reaction was that it made me think of weeds.
The post goes on to list things that a hyperlocal news business should do. I'm sure we'll be using that list as one of our guideposts, even as we develop some interesting variations on it.
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Comments (8)
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I don't think I can be credited (or blamed) for coining the "wedia" moniker. I think it originated on Buzzmachine, via a suggestion by Jim Treacher.
For now, it's my favorite shorthand for this new-old thing we're all working on. And the weed thing doesn't bother me. Makes me think we're "down in the weeds" where the "traditional" folk won't go.
Posted on May 12, 2005 10:57 AM
Ah, Treacher. He has coined many phrases. Great blog.
I guess I've just got weeds on the brain in a bad way because I've got so damn many in my front yard despite years of effort and tons of money spent. But I like your way of looking at it -- kind of a variation on the overused "grass roots," which, when I hear it, reminds me of the '60s group of the same name and their song "Midnight Confession" and geez, I clearly need to get a life, huh?
Posted on May 12, 2005 11:06 AM
How about enews.
Posted on May 13, 2005 5:37 AM
Jeez, I just got my "Citizen Journalist" vest. I wish you guys would make up your mind. Is it wedia or weedia? I prefer the latter, for several reasons I won't go into.
Posted on May 13, 2005 12:02 PM
Henry: E-news has been around a decade or more and refers generally to 1) any news delivered via Internet and/or 2) news ABOUT computers and the Internet. We're trying -- don't ask why -- to label a specific subset of e-news in which ideas are generated and reporting executed by interested amateur journalists rather than (although perhaps in partnership with) established old-media professionals.
Posted on May 16, 2005 8:55 AM
Wedia is great! sprouting up all over, making the guys who've considered themselves the landowners think longingly of Roundup...
And compared to "blog" and "blogosphere", it's really not bad.
A couple of other terms -
Chris Cobler's mother-in-law came up with "monoblog" for a transmit-only weblog, and I like "cargo cult blogging" for those ventures by the clueless who grasp the form but not the purpose.
Need one more term though: what do you call a blog that has a (not overpopulated) comments section where the proprietor never deigns to visit or otherwise respond? (it's not quite monoblogging, but it aint no conversation either... more akin to sharecropping or slumlording)
Please Lex and Lex's readers, if you can help come up with this one...?
Posted on May 16, 2005 3:47 PM
"Wedia?"
Ugh. It's just so... cute.
Posted on May 18, 2005 2:27 PM
is not.
although when we venture into verbs, and conjugation, and a noun for the practitioner, it does become uncharted scary territory.
Dan, you're a word guy, and nobody else is biting - will you help me out with the terminology?
(for "Never visiting the charming, vivacious group that's down in your comments section")
"Titanic blogging" is one possibility.
Posted on May 18, 2005 10:45 PM