Entry #32 – Human Being Journalism

I’m sitting here listening to Dave O talk about Vancouver’s “True North Media House” that will be forming for the Vancouver Olympics. To give you some context, Vancouver has demonstrated that it is at the forefront of social media. Many people here without true old-school media credentials have covered many events as members of the press. Rebecca has covered a lot of events simply as a representative of her website, Dave O has covered a few different Olympics, and I’ve covered a few music events, including the 2008 Canadian Juno awards.

The Olympic committee basically turned down most of the social media in Vancouver for accreditation. Instead of simply whining about it, the social media committee, led in large part by Dave O, has decided to form their own media house for the Olympics — the True North Media House. During the event, it’ll represent a grassroots movement of people who want to cover some aspects of the Olympics, and have an avenue to tell their stories.

Photo by John Biehler

To give you an example of how powerful social media is nowadays. Today John Biehler swung by Workspace for blogathon. While talking to him, we ended up talking about the whale that had been impaled by the cruise ship earlier in Vancouver. Since John had his camera on him, he decided to walk down to the cruise ship and take a few photos. Once they went online, several news organizations saw them. The Globe and Mail just updated their post to include John’s photos, which is obviously cool, but nothing unexpected given how influential the social media community is out here.

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what happens with the True North Media House. With guys like Dave O helping steer the ship, I’m pretty sure they’ll find clear skies and smooth waters.