[Adam] Pasick, a Reuters technology reporter who was formerly earthbound with the news agency, is heading up Reuters’ first virtual news bureau inside the online role-playing game Second Life. While many independent journalists and bloggers have published inside such virtual worlds, Reuters is the first established news agency to dispatch a full-time reporter to do so.... “The fact that it’s in a virtual world doesn’t change things as much as you’d think,” said Mr. Pasick, 30, a Michigan native based in London. “It’s not any different than when Reuters opens up a bureau in a part of the world that has a fast-growing economy that we weren’t in before. The laws of supply and demand hold true, it has a currency exchange, people open businesses and get paid for goods and services.”... “This is a very serious, old brand that stands for things and has principles, but that doesn’t take itself so seriously that it wouldn’t play in a gaming space,” Mr. Glocer said. “This appeals to a younger demographic. Even for people who don’t go in and play in Second Life, it shows Reuters has a certain with-it-ness.”Having a news bureau inside of virtual reality is a branding device: Reuters is an it-getter. And they're getting the press. And I'm chipping in. But I do think it's kind of cool.
October 16, 2006
The news from inside virtual reality.
How strange!
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*****insert obvious jokes here*****
That settles it -- lets all move there, and leave this sorry old world behind! Better algorithms than this one anyway...
Have any of you tried out Second Life? I've never heard of it until this post. So, having nothing better to do (like studying for midterms cominug up, writing papers, &c.) I signed up and took a look around. Very strange, this Second Life thing. I think I'll stick with my primary life...it's hard enough as it is.
I've never played Second Life, but I kind of thought that the point was being able to escape the reality that is daily news.
Their most obvious sponsor to pay for all that bandwidth is Miller High Second Life!
Part of their recent problems with their coverage of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon is precisely that they are running a virtual organization in much of the world. Instead of having their own reporters, they used indiginous reporters, who were most often under the thumb of Hezbollah. And, thus, they ended up at the forefront of the fake but inaccurate journalism, including publishing the photostamped phtotos and publishing numerous staged photos.
Which news service will be the first with a bureau in Hell?
Whom should they send?
My kids are wondering if Fox News can send a reporter to Runescape? They also think it would be cool if NPR had a bureau there, too.
I'm doing something right. They're not at all partisan.
Who has time for a Second Life? Hell, what with blogging it would be a Third Life.
An it-getter?! Did you just coin that, or has it been said before? It deserves to spread.
Amba: "It-getter" is a Stephen Colbert thing. And I too can't imagine wanting to spend a lot of time inside of video game like that, but it's partly that I am so absorbed in blogging. Strangely, I do understand getting absorbed in a very simple game like Tetris or Solitaire, but blogging completely eradicated any interest in passing time like that.
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