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Onion breath Real
Groove July 2002
A few months back I wrote about the rapid growth of the internet in China,
and the associated problems the Chinese Government was having with policing
the net, in order to protect their citizens from the evil influences of
the West.
Now comes the story that China's most popular newspaper the Beijing Evening
News (circulation 1.25 million) has been caught out by a news report they
sourced from a US website. The item reported that the US Congress was
threatening to leave Washington DC for Memphis or Charlotte, unless Washington
builds them a new Capitol building with a retractable dome.
The article was written in the style of a baseball team looking at shifting
towns, if the offer was right, ie a new venue with the finest facilities.
The Beijing Evening News had sourced this story from US parody site The
Onion (www.theonion.com),
which jokingly describes itself as "America's finest news source". It
seems the Beijing Evening News thought they meant it for real.
"The story was written by one of our freelance writers," an editor at
the Evening News told Reuters. "His stuff has been pretty much reliable
before." The editor said he had received calls from readers about the
article. "They were also suspicious of the contents." When the editor
was told of the story's source and that it was fictitious, he said he
would check that, and if it was fake, there will be some form of correction
in the paper.
Going, going, Goth
Gothic culture is thriving on the net, and takes many strange and wonderful
forms. As an information vehicle it provides opportunities for networking
and the like, through local sites such as www.clubbizarre.co.nz.
Like any subculture they have their heroes, often self-generated. Gothic
Babe of the Week claims it is the original (http://industrialgothic.com/gbotw/)
"I came up with the idea in late 1995 when I was searching for attractive
gothic women on the net," says 'Cossack' the site's founder and webmaster
of Industrial Gothic International. Cossack works in law enforcement in
Central Ohio (be afraid), and lists his/her hobbies as a collector and
shooter of all kinds of firearms.
"There wasn't many Gothic pages back then so I had to do a lot of searching.
As a joke I came up with the idea to do a "tongue and cheek" (sic) spoof
of the 'porn' girls of the week web pages that seemed to be pooping (sic)
up all the time back then. In the past few years or so, my page has been
copied and the idea of a "gothic" whatever of the week has been done over
and over by (at my last count) over 60 some "gothic" whatever of the whenever
pages. I believe that people should come up with their own original ideas.
Some things can be overdone."
Copycats include the Goth Boy of the Week (www.gothboyoftheweek.com/)
and then there's the Cheeziest Goth site of the Week (www.gothic.net/~wilt/cheeze/).
"Beware!" the sites warns. "These sites display 12 year-old Manson fans,
scary old-guy-goths with potbellies and fork lifts, and other such 'real
vampires.' This page is devoted to those silly people who claim to be
vampYres, go to extreme lengths to be InSaNe and scary, or write really
shitty slit-your-wrist poems. Enjoy, cuz Jesus put these people here for
our amusement."
Then we hit Goth Pet of the Week (www.oocities.org/BourbonStreet/2536/gothcat.htm),
and the fun continues on from there.
From major to minor.
As the death knell sounds for Napster, and similar music-sharing software
such as Kaaza and Morpheus find themselves locked in major court battles,
the future of music distribution via the internet looks like a bit of
a non starter. The legitimate services being established by the major
labels have so far been met with a lukewarm response from their customers,
who have perhaps grown weary of being treated like thieves by the music
industry. Burn and Get Burnt, anyone?
US commentator Robert von Goeben has suggested that "it will be a very
long time before the major labels allow the type of license that would
create a service that is anywhere near as compelling as Naspter or Kaaza.
Why? Because they don't have to. You have to give the record labels their
due. They have stayed brilliantly focused on controlling the one thing
that matters - the recordings themselves."
Von Groeben works in venture funds (finance groups set up to help fund
new computer-related start up companies). He was head of online activities
at Geffen Records. (www.geffen.com)
Von Groeben observes that the main reason for the failure of any new start-up
company to successfully establish a digital music distribution system
is that they are missing the key ingredient. They don't own the content.
"It's only after the start-ups get into the game of signing artists that
they will turly be able to control the destiny of downstream distribution.
This is no easy task. Record companies have spent decades building up
a sourcing system, and have a huge competitive advantage when it comes
to expertise in promotion and marketing."
He says that this model could be bought into effect from the fringes.
"There is a long history of small labels making inroads into overlooked
genres, and while these independent efforts have historically grown up
to be fodder for major (label) acquisitions it won't be long before a
burgeoning independent makes better strategic use of distribution technology...
the game will really get interesting when the very heart of the music
industry - the creation and sourcing of music - is challenged."
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PREVIOUS COLUMNS...
a selection
January/Feb 2002
Microserfs...
Top 5 websites/online buys for 2001.
December 2001
Tokyo
record shopping.
March 2001
Saucy
e-mail tsunami undoes lusty lawyers
October 2000
A little
bit Country... and Russell Brown goes surfing
March 2000
Shopping
for cd's: online or on foot?
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