FishbowlLA was in attendance last Friday afternoon for the Social Media Week LA panel “How Social Media is Transforming Journalism.” Because of the Pacific time zone, this event turned out to be the very last one across the worldwide network of SMW hubs.

We were particularly struck by the comments of LA Times executive producer, interactive video Michelle Maltais regarding the paper’s recent foray into regularly scheduled Google hangouts. The paper officially started streaming the discussions a few months ago.

Read more

CES Blog Item That Oddly Scares Us: We tend to embrace technology here at FBLA, but something in the BitPlayer post by Michelle Maltais made us a little uncomfortable. SimulScribe will make a transcript of your voicemail and e-mail it to you… This is either the end of the drunk-n-dial or the beginning of a whole new era of blackmail. Either way, we gotta get off the sauce.

“News” Event To Replace Golden Globes: The LAT piece looks at this from the perspective of the WGA strike. But consider it another way: A press conference in which celebs might attend (maybe) to announce the winners of a glamor award feels sickeningly like the future of news to us. Can you imagine Sean Penn announcing the 2008 Presidential winner? We can.

Food Fight: Cookbook author Missy Chase Lapine is suing Jerry Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica, saying that Jessica plagiarized her ideas for a healthy kids’ foods book. Further, the lawsuit states, “Lapine was not a public figure, does not suffer mental infirmity, is not a celebrity stalker, is not violent or dangerous, and does not engage in extortion or lies.” Which is an awesome thing to have in a lawsuit.