Welcome to the ninth episode of “The Mediatwits,” the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift’s Mark Glaser along with PaidContent founder Rafat Ali. This week’s show looks at the recent purchase of Tweetdeck by Twitter, and the questions it raises about companies starting businesses on the platform of other companies. If you run an app for Twitter but aren’t bought by Twitter, where does that leave you?
This week’s special guest is Jen Lee Reeves, who teaches at the Missouri School of Journalism and is the interactive director for KOMU-TV. She has been covering the recent tornadoes and bad weather in Missouri and using her TV station’s Facebook page to connect with its community. Finally, the talk turns to conflicts of interest for entrepreneurial journalists and tech bloggers such as Michael Arrington, Kara Swisher and Om Malik. Should they be able to invest in companies they cover, be venture capitalists themselves? How do they maintain credibility?
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Intro and outro music by 3 Feet Up; mid-podcast music by Autumn Eyes via Mevio’s Music Alley.
Here are some highlighted topics from the show:
Rafat taking one more trip
1:08: Getting to Uzbekistan
2:20: No media fact-finding
2:45: Rundown of the show’s topics
Twitter buys Tweetdeck
04:30: What will Twitter do with it?
07:05: Dick Costolo remains Twitter CEO (for today)
08:40: Inhibiting innovation?
10:25: TechCrunch Disrupt startups not tied to Twitter, Facebook
Interview with KOMU’s Jen Lee Reeves
11:10: Background on Reeves
13:35: Heavy Facebook use in mid-Missouri
15:30: How Facebook use is different from Twitter
18:45: People coming to KOMU page rather than just reading news feed on Facebook
21:40: KOMU website changes to “river of news”
Conflicts for tech journalists
23:45: Background on conflicts for Michael Arrington, Kara Swisher, Om Malik
25:55: Rafat on how PaidContent dealt with conflicts
28:10: Mark notes the problem might be what people don’t cover too
30:10: Om Malik was a respected journalist before becoming venture funder
More Reading
Twitter Buys TweetDeck at WSJ Digits
What the Tweetdeck Acquisition Means for Marketers at AdAge
Newsroom, Community Use Facebook as Key Hub After Joplin Tornado at MediaShift
Images and Video from Joplin Tornado at KOMU
Kara Swisher, Michael Arrington, and me: New conflicts, and new opportunities, for the tech press at Nieman Lab
Godspeed on That Investing Thing, Yertle-But I Still Have Some Questions for Your Boss, Arianna at AllThingsD
Arrington Says The Real Conflict Of Interest In Tech Reporting Has Nothing To Do With Money at Business Insider
It’s Hilarious That Mike Arrington Gets Beat Up For Investing In Startups When Om Malik Is A Partner At A VC Firm at Business Insider
Weekly Poll
Don’t forget to vote in our weekly poll, this time about how journalists can deal with conflicts:
Mark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the Online Publishers Association. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter @mediatwit.