A critical eye for blogs, vlogs, other new media

To a media critic, the way a story is conveyed can be as interesting as the story itself. That's the take John Carroll is bringing to a new weekly commentary on WGBH-FM (89.7). Starting today, Carroll, a fixture on WGBH-TV's "Beat the Press" and "Greater Boston," will talk about the effects of new media, such as blogs, during "Morning Edition." His approximately three-minute commentaries, which will air Thursdays at 6:35 and 8:35 a.m., will also be accessible at wgbh.org/morningedition.

New media, says Carroll, an assistant professor of mass communications at Boston University, is "happening so fast, it's developing right in front of our eyes." In addition to blogs, he lists "vlogs" (video blogs), "mobisodes" (videos distributed directly to cellphones), and video-sharing sites as examples of the way people are getting their news, entertainment, and political commentary these days.

"Basically, people are producing their own newspapers every day," says Carroll. He gives an example of what a reader could request. "Give me everything on Russia, the Red Sox, and radishes," he says. "Everybody can program their own media."

As a commentator, continues Carroll, he is interested in how this media is being used -- and how it affects politics and culture. To any cynic who dismisses new media's influence, he cites the elections last fall in Virginia, and notes how a YouTube video of Senator George Allen calling someone "macaca" contributed to his loss. "You see people announcing [candidacies] on the Web," adds Carroll. "Politics . . . is happening on the Internet."

The advantages of new media for the public, says Carroll, are obvious. With everything available online, the public has "control, customization, and immediacy." The downside of all these options, he says, is "that there's complete overload." Also, he notes, "there's expense involved. You have to have a computer. You have to subscribe to an Internet service."

In his debut commentary, Carroll will examine the efficacy of one example of a new media hybrid, the "Save Darfur" ad campaign. He sees that campaign, which aims to raise awareness as well as funds, as "a completely different kind of advocacy." The campaign, he notes, has had mixed results. Using old-media advertising, including full-page ads in The New York Times, as well as a strong, interactive Web presence, the campaign has brought together more than 170 groups for one cause. "It's working as . . . an organizing tool" but it's not influencing legislators, he says.

Next week, says Carroll, he'll swing in a completely different direction and discuss video games. The connection, he says, is the media used. "One of the reasons I'm happy to be doing this is it allows me to stretch out. I think it'll be pretty evenly divided between politics, media, and culture."

That's a mix, says 'GBH program director Jon Solins, that will help old-media users, such as radio listeners. "In today's climate, it's getting harder and harder to distinguish useful information from the clutter of media we're faced with," says Solins. "So we think it's a valuable service to our listeners to bring John's unique perspective and experience to radio."