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    Categories: Online Video

4 Minute Roundup: Swine Flu Online; Disney Joins Hulu

Here’s the latest 4MR audio report from MediaShift. This week I look at the positive — and negative — way the Internet, blogs and Twitter have spread information about the swine flu. There are great resources, maps and tracking sites, but it’s easy to get in a panic as well. Also, Disney joined up in the video site Hulu, putting pressure on CBS, the only major U.S. TV network not a part of the joint venture. I ask “Just One Question” to Peter Shane, executive director of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.

Check it out:

Background music is “What the World Needs” by the The Ukelele Hipster Kings via PodSafe Music Network

Here are some links to related sites and stories mentioned in the podcast:

#swineflu search on Twitter

Tracking Internet Chatter Helps Spot Swine Flu Outbreak at Wired Science

Swine flu: Twitter’s power to misinform at Foreign Policy

How to: Track Swine Flu Online at Mashable

Facebook maps the swine flu hysteria at News.com

ABC to Add Its Shows to Videos on Hulu at NY Times

CBS dances alone … for now at LA Times

Building the Ideal Community Information Hub at MediaShift

Here’s a graphical view of last week’s MediaShift survey results:

Also, be sure to vote in our poll about swine flu on MediaShift!

Mark Glaser :Mark Glaser is founder and executive director of MediaShift. He contributes regularly to Digital Content Next’s InContext site and newsletter. Glaser is a longtime freelance journalist whose career includes columns on hip-hop, reviews of videogames, travel stories, and humor columns that poked fun at the titans of technology. From 2001 to 2005, he wrote a weekly column for USC Annenberg School of Communication's Online Journalism Review. Glaser has written essays for Harvard's Nieman Reports and the website for the Yale Center for Globalization. Glaser has written columns on the Internet and technology for the Los Angeles Times, CNET and HotWired, and has written features for the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Entertainment Weekly, the San Jose Mercury News, and many other publications. He was the lead writer for the Industry Standard's award-winning "Media Grok" daily email newsletter during the dot-com heyday, and was named a finalist for a 2004 Online Journalism Award in the Online Commentary category for his OJR column. Glaser won the Innovation Journalism Award in 2010 from the Stanford Center for Innovation and Communication. Glaser received a Bachelor of Journalism and Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Missouri at Columbia, and currently lives in San Francisco with his wife Renee and his two sons, Julian and Everett. Glaser has been a guest on PBS' "Newshour," NPR's "Talk of the Nation," KALW's "Media Roundtable" and TechTV's "Silicon Spin." He has given keynote speeches at Independent Television Service's (ITVS) Diversity Retreat and the College Media Assocation's national convention. He has been part of the lecture/concert series at Yale Law School and Arkansas State University, and has moderated many industry panels. He spoke in May 2013 to the Maui Business Brainstormers about the "Digital Media Revolution." To inquire about speaking opportunities, please use the site's Contact Form.

View Comments (3)

  • I'm not all that concerned about us getting the swine flu but when my wife got a letter home from the school to inform all the parents about it shes been in a panic and probably b/c of all the people blowing the thing out of proportion.
    I'm going to have her check out the links you left so she can get some more stable info and maybe calm down a little. Thanks Steven

  • Hi Steven,
    I think there's a lot of good information online about swine flu, but it's very easy to get into a panic mode about it. I would definitely focus more on what you can get from the CDC and gov resources than from CNN, Fox and other news outlets that have been pretty sensational in coverage.

  • Well, for me. I would rather not to believe immediately on what social media posted regarding swine flu because sometimes, posters on social media sites are too much exaggerated to post a very important news that might lead to the readers more on a panic side especially on this deadly virus from swine. People must be aware and choose the right media on how they could get the right information on a particular news for them to be able to decide precisely and wisely on how to be able to make precautionary measures.

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