“Planking” in Taunton

“Planking” in Taunton By boliston

Journalism 2.0 has exploded with the term “planking”.

Wikipedia refers to it as the Lying down game — “An activity, popular in various parts of the world, consisting of lying face down in an unusual or incongruous location. The hands must touch the sides of the body; having a photograph of the participant taken and posted on the Internet is an integral part of the game.”

And the article goes on to say that Gary Clarkson and Christian Langdon invented the Lying Down Game in 1997, in North East England. The two creators even have a website about this new form of art.

Planking was sweeping Britain by late 2010. It hit the news in 2009 when seven doctors and nurses working at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, England were suspended for planking while on duty. But the term “planking” would be coined on the shores of Australia.

Planking became a craze in Australia. There’s the popular video Planking Craze.  There’s the Planking Australia page on Facebook.

Australian talkshow host and TV Queen Kerri-Anne Kennerley opened her show planking.

But getting to the point here. Planking became popularized in 2011 and there are observations to absorb here.

Fads, trends, and all the above are constantly being swayed by the internet crowd. This is how we’re getting our news and information now. You may have seen a version on the local TV network in your hometown, but that was after the internet community had already digested it. The chances are that you’ll catch the story online hours (if not days) ahead of time, long before you view it on the evening news. True?

Netizens are becoming  journalists, reporters, and editors. Netizens have become the deliverer and audience on the same stroke. Netizens have their own favorite RSS feed. It’s called Twitter. Netizens have their own camera. It’s called YouTube. And the quality of news on YouTube is outstanding. It’s really hard to beat.

Another observation one could discuss is the quantity of fads that are making headlines on news pages online. What does this say about online journalism? Are popular websites running stories like this to gain a bigger audience? Does journalism suffer with quality because of this?

Good or bad, I would argue that we are starting to see the effects of commercialism online. It’s inevitable. But the good things outweigh the bad by far. At least people are reading and interacting now. And we do have alternative sources to find information, rather than relying on media of yesterday.

The big difference is how internet connoisseurs get the news delivered to them — only now they choose what they like and what they don’t like. The newsroom has to compete online, where offline there seems to be a tremendous void. Social media has played a key role in filling that void. Newspapers and others had better jump on the viral bandwagon and soon. Or else they take the risk of becoming food for the buzzards.

Wait a minute… Are you posting your plank of the day on Facebook?