If I’m lucky, when I accidentally enter that brain-sucking vortex of music video comments, austere multi-media sidebars, vacation photos of forgotten middle school acquaintances, one-click petitions for livers, emails from Nancy Pelosi, five consecutive episodes of one of those old-time sitcoms meant for one-a-day viewing…

…I emerge to find myself re-focusing, at once engaged and calmed by the steady pacing and seamless editing of a 10-15 minute long video that intelligently breaks down the answer to some clear-headed question, like: “Why Demand Nuclear Transparency from Iran and Not Israel?”

I’m still online, but I’ve made my way to my current internet haven: The Real News Network (TRNN).

The name is one of a few of the network’s heavy-handed features, but such clunkers are a small price to be paid for a news outlet free from ads, porn, memes, and government ties. The user-sponsored model doesn’t guarantee better content, but with talented journalists like Jihan Hafiz covering breaking news in Cairo (a city she clearly knows backwards and forwards), ideals rarely come at the expense of quality or entertainment value at TRNN.

This seems in part due to the enthusiasm TRNN has inspired in “raptivist” Chuck D and a long list of similarly conscientious donors. (During a recent fund drive, there were a whole bunch of video promotions featuring people you have actually heard of on the website, but they have sadly disappeared.)

TRNN still has a ways to go to expand its coverage, but has made its mark with amazing original reporting on the Middle East and international protest movements.

TRNN clearly has its priorities in place, firmly opposite those of other new media outlets. So far, as with the more mature Democracy Now!, TRNN’s original content comes from a single host and a core team of experienced journalists.

TRNN has a lot of promise, but it’s a hard world out there for news media. Schizophrenic new media ventures like BuzzFeed are attempting to attract audiences with a “mix of oddities, listicles and web memes,” and headers like “LOL,” “cute,” “win,” “fail,” “omg,” “geeky,” “trashy” and “wtf?” before even beginning to sneak in “more traditional news verticals” (which the New York Times article I’ve been heavily quoting claims is the ultimate goal).

Is that really the model we’re going to champion as the future of sustainable news outlets?

Unlike BuzzFeed, the TRNN business model is clearly not designed to make as much money as possible (nor does it have naughty articles, like the Pillsbury-sponsored “10 Things You Never Knew You Could Do With A Crescent Roll”).

With some promotion, however, TRNN may be able to capitalize on current trends and gaps in mainstream news. While some may associate technological saturation with a low attention span, Wikipedia has prompted people to click at least a little further to learn the facts behind an issue like SOPA (although, in that particular case, it proved to be a catch-22), which springs into the superficial ubiquity of a news cycle and drops out just as most people are signing an unread petition to act on the matter.

Traditional print news outlets are increasingly joining the media literate and using video to create timely, didactic primers on such news topics. TRNN takes advantage of the availability of those primers, such as this one The Guardian did on SOPA. Original content is also frequently supplemented by videos from Al-Jazeera and other sources that fit their outlook and style. They also focus on actions taking place around issues in their “Organize This” section.

TRNN has basically asserted that if you’re spending so much time on the internet anyway, you might just have 12 minutes to learn about US policy towards the Congo. You don’t even have to break that vegetative, image-addicted state. I like to think of it as a mix between CNN and the Discovery Channel.

So far, TRNN has some innovative features to get users involved, but it’s difficult to tell to what extent they are functioning because there is little user content featured. Many interactive features, like the ability to pitch new stories for journalists to cover and vote them up or down to determine their priority, are only available to members and will hopefully thrive as the site grows.

Live interviews announced by email with opportunities to contribute questions have been more effective. The videos on TRNN started out as one-shots that led to browsing the site, but now members can watch them in a continuous player or create a custom “My Real News” page as well.

The “network” is in many ways attempting to build a contemporary answer to traditional TV news. It’s not struggling to convert a traditional news model to a new platform, nor is it satisfied with creating a single popular show like Democracy Now! or The Young Turks. TRNN is unafraid of sticking to a style all its own, whether in its original or found videos. That style is didactic, unapologetic, witty, and subjective, with a basis in hard facts.

Like any good news site, TRNN also acts as a curator, offering the “Best of the Web” along with humor clips from the likes of Lee Camp and The Onion. Hopefully they will soon have the resources ( interns) to make this section more consistent.

Right now, TRNN’s assortment of outside content is both a goldmine and a minefield: I can’t promise you won’t click a video and find yourself watching someone rap the news. I can’t promise you won’t watch the whole thing…and then read the video comments. It’s always the links section where one gets sucked into the vortex once again.


 
 
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