CNN Joins Second Life by Looking for Citizen Reporters

MediaWeek, a Nielsen Business Media publication, seems to have broken the story this morning that CNN is joining other major news outlets in reporting on happenings in Second Life.

The buzz is humming among those who care about such things, but any hard news behind the announcement is very hard to come by at the moment.

CNN is reportedly slated to open an “outpost” next week, that will serve to expand its i-Report initiative into SL.  The MediaWeek story indicates CNN will provide resident reporters with a toolkit and plans weekly “news meetings” that will train SL citizens on reportage.

Although CNN has done some toe-dipping toward harnessing “citizen media,” such as their YouTube Debates,  we’ll have to reserve judgment on how committed they are to SL media until we see the outcome.  I doubt we will see a concerted effort to actually train citizen reporters, based on CNN’s existing web i-Report toolkit. It is limited to tips on broadcast-friendly recording techniques and instructions for submitting audio and video files to the CNN newsroom.

A few of CNN sibling companies have jumped into SL in some form or another, including AOL, HBO and the most recently, Warner Bros with their I Am Legend game and film promotion.

October 29, 2007