ANNALS OF MEDIA -- Is MySpace entering the news fray?

By CARYN ROUSSEAU,

AP's ASAP News Wire

The buzz on the blogs -- really across the Internet by Monday -- was that social networking site MySpace.com has plans to launch a news service for its members. And keep in mind that MySpace is already owned by a media giant -- News Corp., whose holdings include cable television stations, newspapers and magazines.

MySpace had no comment on Monday, so this is far from confirmed.

But asap wondered, what if...?

So we called Howard Finberg, director of interactive learning at the Poynter Institute, a research and training institute for journalists in St. Petersburg, Fla., and asked him to consider the implications of combining social networking with news.

''There's something going on out there,'' Finberg said. ''We just don't know what it is. It's going to make some people upset and it's going to make some people see an opportunity.''

Here's some more of what Finberg had to say:

asap: What do you think could be going on here?

Finberg: It sounds like they're talking about bringing in news feeds. That becomes interesting because who will they bring in? And that sort of thing should be of great interest to the media industry.

The fundamental question is, what is the definition of news if MySpace decides to go ahead and create a news service? So if they're offering news, where will they get it from and will it have to stay within the MySpace space, or will there be partnerships with other news providers?

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asap: MySpace users are known to be young. Could something like this bring more news to young people?

Finberg: There is a segment of that audience that does not pay any attention to news. These are people with self-described habits of not accessing any of the news sites, whether it be print, broadcast or online. And we know MySpace users are passionate about going to the site, with about half reporting that they go every day.

So the potential to expose them to stories that could be of importance to them -- that could be a good thing.

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asap: How could this affect the media?

Finberg: It does make life harder for, say, legacy media outlets to figure out where to put their time and their energy. It does mean more potential competition, but frankly I would hope it also means an opportunity for those who can figure it out to tap into the MySpace community, to give them content that is relevant to them.

... I don't mean just pandering to young people; you have to figure out what it is they want at the local level as well as the national and international.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press

Comments

[sam]

Like any of the paeople on myspace watch th news.....:) We use it for viral marketing of our software that automates Myspace emails and adds friends. But they need help in keeping the site from all those errors that come up
http://www.myfriendbuilder.com/

sam