economist survey

From the late April edition of The Economist, a survey of new media that should help anyone who hasn't really been paying attention until now figure out the new web trends. The summary of new media issues is partially old news, but any time I read something on the so-called media revolution I get one more example of something I didn't know before.

This time it was of the site Ohmy news, founded by a South Korean ex-magazine editor. Ohmy only allows amateurs ("citizens") to write in and a small group of editors choose which articles to put on the site. The coolest thing about it is a tip-jar button that asks readers to donate a small amount if they like the writing - I couldn't find this feature on the English site, it must be a South Korean-only thing.

In addition to the intro and outro, here are the key articles:
blogs
interactive journalism (Ohmy)
wikis
podcasts
fantasy worlds (Second Life)
ends with, the "gazillion-dollar question" - what is the new media company?
great list of sources


The best quote out of all the articles comes from Paul Saffo, a director at the Institute for the Future:

“revolutions tend to suck for ordinary people.”