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"Alternative world video news you won't likely see on your mainstream network TV channels." Yes, today, I am officially launching the new RGTV News, a non-commercial non-mainstream video news channel covering international news that don't get coverage on your typical network TV channels.
As in the metaphorical picture above I am acting as a television news editor, capturing and selecting those very news stories and issues that are rarely picked up by mainstream media and which as a consequence are never seen or talked about by normal TV viewers. Yes, you are reading it right: I have created a video news channel made up of all those original television news clips that while getting aired somewhere at who knows what time of the night, never see the light of being shown, juxtaposed and edited as if they were the key headlines of the day.
You can see the RGTV News channel live on the home page of Master New Media.
The technology behind RGTV News is the powerful multimedia solution accessible to everyone that Splashcast keeps on improving.
Now with a full index of all the preceding daily issues, the possibility to comment via text video or audio, a full RSS feed, thumbnail and full screen view, the Splashcast platform really offers all you may want to have to build your own custom video news channel. Splashcast doesn't offer any monetization opportunities (yet) but since this is a fully non-commercial endeavor I am particularly happy right now with this solution.
Find out how I have arrived at this final video format solution, how I prepare and publish this video news channel and how you can help, comment and provide feedback to it.
My original goal was one of creating a grassroots independent international news video channel that would have spun all the major time zones with individual bloggers-contributors from every major city-region.
Unfortunately I did not find enough volunteers and supporters. We run the pilot for a few weeks but the distributed contributors were too few to be able to create the non-stop news format I had in mind.
I decided then to acknowledge the errors made but wanted to insist in finding an alternative road.
My next step was then to test my secondary idea of aggregating international video news clips available through the main search engines and directories and to ideally build a counter-information video news channel that would bring together those very news and stories that never make it to our typical mainstream network TV channels.
To produce my daily RGTV News this is what I do every day:
1) I check first the key international video news sources that produce the greatest number of officially publicly accessible (YouTube) news clips and I check personally all of the video news stories they have published. I look at the titles and description of each and put aside all of those that may have some interest for MasterNewMedia international readership. Out of 72 video channels I follow daily on YouTube those that produce the greatest number of interesting news clips are the BBC World News service and the English edition of Al Jazeera. These generally contribute a good 50% of all the news clips I select and publish every day. I hope to be able to have more breadth of traditional tv broadcasters channels in the future as for now only these seem to have made an official choice of publishing all of their video news online via YouTube. When will other broadcasters follow?
2) I look at all of the video news clips I have selected and save the ones that contain stories or that cover issues that I deem fitting for the RGTV News format. The format as I have mentioned, is characterized by a liberal, uncommented selection of international video news from different sources and broadcasters that are unlikely to be aired inside your typical mainstream network TV channels. The viewer is given the freedom to make sense of the news the way she likes.
3) Once selected, I sort the video news stories according to the importance and depth of each. Pressing headline-like stories get the top of the queue while more in-depth investigative research reports are slotted in the ending of my RGTV news compilation.
4) When I have at least six or seven good video news stories I publish a new edition. It can be quite early in the morning (about 1-2am NY time) though more frequently I finalize it around 6-8am NY time).
5) I update my Master New Media home page and provide titles and key info inside the news ticker that displays just above the video news box. If there are key relevant news and stories I also twitter the news release providing keywords for what's covered.
6) I repeat the process two or three times per day. Seven days out of seven. After the early morning edition I do my news-selection again at mid-day and then in the evening as to make sure that if there are other valuable news stories they also get included later on in the day.
My video news sources are open and publicly accessible to everyone. They are at present 71 different YouTube channels that I subscribe and follow closely, but this number grows almost daily. Keep in mind that outside of heavy weight broadcast TV producers like the BBC and AlJazeera all other content producers on YouTube will have a much lower publication rate. This is why increasing the number of video sources to 100 or more would certainly help. I am also increasingly looking at video news sources that have no content on YouTube but which allow re-publication of their news clips. In fact, if you are aware of anyone out there that I should know of please do let me know.
Right now I have no assistants or collaborators helping me on this. It would be of great help to be able to receive pointers to newly posted interesting video content that my readers could discover before me. I in fact openly invite anyone wanting to contribute sparingly or even wanting wanting to become a fixed news contributor to do by simply sending me relevant pointers at Robin.Good [at] MasterNewMedia.org
RGTV News is also available as a RSS feed and can be republished and embedded on other sites or blogs at zero cost. Just grab this code below and run with it.
The Splashcast multimedia publishing platform is what is behind all this. It makes my newly invented international video news editor job a breeze and it does let me focus on what is important to me: finding great news clips rapidly and making it easiest for me to assemble and publish them online at-a-click of a button.
Splashcast is fully free to use, carries no advertising, and it is a company that does listen to its customers. Its features and tools keep improving as well as its performance. I get no commissions or special treatments from them and while I am a Marshall Kirkpatrick estimator (Marshall is director of content at Splashcast Media) I strongly believe that he treats everyone who gets in touch with him the same way. So just raise your hand out there, and you have a guy here who seems to be taking good notes of all the feedback he gets.
On RGTV News you can also watch anyone of the past newscasts by simply hovering your mouse on the RGTV News player and clicking on the Channel Guide button that shows up on the top left corner. You can reference and embed specific newscasts or the whole channel which gets updated daily. Full screen view is available and you can easily browse through all of a newscast daily clips by scrolling your mouse over the bottom left corner of the news player.
If you like what you have seen and want to help or contribute to this independent international video news channel feel free to do so. You can send in URL of specific video news stories (they should be fresh news published in the last 24-36 hours) or even do a short (2-3 minutes) commentary on specific stories that you want to report or express an opinion about.
You can also contribute by utilizing RGTV News feedback and commenting facilities that are available to you by simply hovering your mouse pointer on the RGTV News video player. Options for text, audio and video comments are available to you and provide maximum ease in making your voice, criticism or advice heard and seen.
Original article written by Robin Good for Master New Media and titled: "Video News Channel Captures International TV News You Won't Likely See On Your Mainstream TV: RGTV News"
| 2007-09-17 15:35:33 |
Gus, your criticism is very well taken.
It is by experimenting, trying it out things that one can learn and find out.
I take your feedback as valuable advice and I will take your advice with me from now on when making my selections.
While I may still err I owe you a thank you for your humbleness in coming down to my level and explaining gently the why and what of your feelings.
Thanks
| 2007-09-17 15:15:16 |
Thanks Robin - I have now read your thorough reporting on this matter - your article is, in my opinion, good journalism. However, it doesn't change my view that including the chem warfare video into a news stream was an error in judgment - no matter how valid its source material, the piece itself contains no news, just fearmongering.
| 2007-09-17 01:16:18 |
Hi Gus,
thank you for your kind comments.You may want to give a look a bit deeper into the core of that matter and see for yourself whether it is just plain paranoia, or whether there is something more to it:
http://tinyurl.com/34wfzgIf you have facts or information showing that what is shown in that short clip you refer to is the fruit of pure fantasy, I'd like to read into those.
| 2007-09-16 19:20:06 |
I think it's great that you are providing an alternative news stream for us, and as I respect your intelligence and insight, Robin, I look forward to a good selection of pieces to view. However, watching the videos that have so far been accumulated (as of Sept 16), I was really disappointed that you chose to include the piece on chemical and biological warfare. I really think you were showing poor judgment there, Robin. This piece could not be described as news of any sort. It is pure opinion, no factual information is offered, just suspicions, and even those without any detail. Some months ago you warned us, Robin, about the media irresponsibly promoting fear - I believe you have inadvertantly fallen into the same trap here yourself.
| 2007-09-10 12:29:41 |
great choice RG!
I look forward for a video podcast I can subscribe to to download on my harddrive.
cheers,
r
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