Video Provides Outline of First Look Media, A Media Innovation With Great Potential
First Look Media from First Look Media on Vimeo.
You can access the video transcript here: video transcript
One of the great challenges faced is the need for accurate reporting about the events around us. Recent polls show only one in four Americans trust the traditional mass media. We share their skepticism especially when it comes to critical issues facing the country. As the credibility of corporate media has fallen, a new media has been rising. Independent media outlets as well as the new citizens media have begun to fill the void, but more is needed. We are excited by the potential of First Look Media, the new journalism and technology enterprise being launched by billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar alongside journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill; and many others.
On January 27th, Omidyar announced some of the details of how First Look Media will be shaped in his blog and in the video above. He wrote they are “creating a general interest news site that will cover topics ranging from entertainment and sports to business and the economy” that will be launched later this year. In addition, First Look will have a series of ‘digital magazines’ and that “we’ll be launching the first of our digital magazines, publications that have an independent editorial voice and a unique look and feel, led by a visionary and experienced journalist or team of journalists.”
It sounds like a lot of work is ahead to figure out this new form of media, Eric Bates, who joined First Look in November after leaving his role as executive editor of Rolling Stone told Mashable “We don’t even have job titles at this point. We’re all sort of doing everything.” It sounds like a key innovation will be in how the use technology. Bates also said “Rather than embedding technologies in the news room, we’re building a technology company along side the news room. We’re going to be looking at how to build technology that tells stories and distributes new stories in different ways.”
We look forward to future developments with sincere hope that First Look Media will play a critical role in creating the new media that is so urgently needed so people can better understand what is going on around them.