News Aggregation News & Articles

Last summer the Associated Press had a showdown with bloggers. The AP released its own rules about how bloggers are allowed to use content written by the AP. Bloggers fought back. TechCrunch initiated a boycott.

In the end, the AP made nice and decided to draft some guidelines that they strongly encouraged bloggers to abide by. Then the housing market bubble burst. Banks began to fail. A presidential election and a failing economy took center stage.

Now, as we pick up the pieces of the last nine months, the AP wants to remind us that they are still not satisfied.

Any site whose mission claims to harness the “power of the web to restore credibility in news media” is worth a closer look. Especially when they claim to be apart of the social media revolution. Especially when its plans includes news aggregation.

NewsCred, a news aggregator that ranks stories by the credibility of their source, has launched its public site. Instead of relying on popularity, NewsCred allows users to rate each story, author and publication’s credibility, which is then plugged into an algorithm to determine the site’s prominent headlines. But isn’t rating a biased measurement?

Nevermind.

For every step forward taken in bridging the gap between traditional print and online media, there are two steps backward every time the words “Sign of the Times” are uttered. Such is the case with a recent debate about the merits and downfalls of news aggregators.