We've Come Together?

I went back and re-read an article from 2009 in the Business Insider recently titled, "Can Curation Save Media?" http://articles.businessinsider.com/2009-04-03/tech/29954791_1_media-content-facebook-updates/2

Here's an excerpt that really articulated the meaning of curation well:

Curation is the sibling of aggregation, a word that the web has known for a while. Aggregation means gathering; finding all videos with the key words "Easter Supper" in them. But as more devices like cell phones are used to create content (video of a hotel room, a tweet from a rock concert, an audio post from a political protest) gathering no longer adds value. In fact, aggregation can equal aggravation.

In walks the early Curators. Arianna Huffington is a curator. Her "Huffington Post" editorial team picks and chooses what to feature on their home page ... mixing their journalistic editorial work with their hand-picked bloggers and with the best content from around the web. Michael Wolff's "Newser" is as well. Perhaps the earliest Curator was Matt Drudge with 'The Drudge Report'.

But today, curation is quickly becoming central to what many editorial teams are looking to embrace. The New York Times is curating blog posts from outside sources. And what the Times knows is that content that they validate with their brand and redistribution becomes more valuable, both to readers and to the content creators.

Strangely enough, curation shifts the balance of power back to brands and publications. While anyone can make content, the decision to gather it, and present it by trusted content curators has more risk, and therefore more value.

The trend in video is away from UGV (user-generated video) and toward CVC (curated video content).

Very well stated and a good reminder, but it got me to ponder a thought. In my observation, the majority of stations I see posting on Facebook, tweeting, and sharing on social sites tend to still use the aggregation strategy as a curation approach.

A curator is someone who offers a filtered view to their followers with a specific niche or purpose, NOT simply sharing other curators content.

Yes, there are opportunities where sharing other curators content can be appropriate, but the default should always be to create the relationship with a person and yourself or brand first, instead of constantly sending them to follow others.

I believe it's the same as an on-air person who would approach a topical story or event by sharing the details, but putting their unique personality in the moment by creating a bit, telling a joke, relating a similar story, and so on.

They make it uniquely centered around their brand to connect with listeners, instead of simply relaying a second hand account of someone else's moment.

Why not take that topical video, the breaking news story, an interesting picture, or whatever and create a blog post on your site where the item can be embedded, and you can write about it from your point of view. Now, take that link and share it on the social sites in a curating fashion.