The concept is simple, by running Spinspotter you effectively put a pair of ‘spinoculars’ on when looking at a site. The program highlights spin in red, using an algorithm based on the Code of Ethics in the Society of Professional Journalists. It will also be able to detail how much of a news story matches a press release. In some cases, Hermann explains, up to 90% of a story’s content is lifted straight from a press release. I love my news regurgitated.
The technology behind this program is a bit beyond me, but it also offers users the chance to correct spin on a web page, to rewrite a sentence that all the other Spinspotters can then view. So it will function similarly to Wikipedia, as far as the ability to edit content. To safeguard the quality of the program, a ‘trust engine’ has been built to catch anyone who is deliberately undermining the process.It sounds like a unique idea, but concerns about the subjectivity of spin seem valid. As is pointed out in the interview, things like the context or tone of the spin may be hard to identify. If successful though, Spinspotter will make journalists everywhere sit up and take notice. It will force a higher level of journalistic integrity as it targets passive voice, missing context, ‘overly-pejorative adjectives’ and ‘superlatives that lack supporting data.’
To me this is another example of technology shaping the face of media, much like the force of erosion. The concept is sound and if correctly executed will have a positive effect on the industry. Anything which empowers audiences and allows them to take control over what is being fed to them through mainstream media is a good thing.
And, as Hermann explains, that’s exactly what drove him to create Spinspotter in the first place – ‘66% of Americans feel the media is one-sided.’ If the numbers of disgruntled media consumers are similar over here then Spinspotter’s success seems assured.
Transcript: Spinspotter
Image source: http://spinspotter.com/
1 comment:
Madame Media:
Thank you for noticing SpinSpotter. If I can answer any questions about how much work we have done to be as objective as possible, I would be happy to chat with you.
I was just thrilled to be "On The Media", if curiosity on behalf of journalists is any measure of the promise of technologies like ours, there seemingly exists the possibility that "participatory journalism" could, in fact, be a significant help to journalism. We are especially interested how excited many journalists have been in the ability Spinoculars users have to add facts, provide out-links to "source material" like YouTube videos, which journalists may have not had the time or the column space to provide such out-linking (they also may be barred from doing that by management).
When you create markers or edit a news article, please email them to me:
my name at my company dot com
Incidentally, if you want to see how to use the tool (or see how I use it), we have posted some videos for that purpose:
http://spinspotterblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/some-video-examples-spinspotting.html
Thanks again, MM!
--Todd Herman
Founder & Chief Creative Officer
SpinSpotter
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