The Columbia Journalism Review's blog gives a favorable opinion of the work of Kevin Sites, the photojournalist Yahoo! hired to conduct what is arguably the most ambitious dive into journalism by an Internet company. The multimedia site Yahoo! launched known as The Hot Zone is being watched closely by media outlets, but most have come to the conclusion that it does not pose a threat to traditional journalism.

CJR feels that the Hot Zone provides a side of the story that people don't read in the daily news. For example, Sites, presently touring Israel and Palestine, is interviewing everyday people, as well as cultural figures trying to make a difference in their communities, adding a human interest aspect to the conflict that helps interested folk to understand the conflict from a commoner point of view, not just that of the politicians making the decisions.

Since being in the region, Sites has interviewed a young Israeli waitress that was wounded in a suicide bombing while working, an actor who portrays a suicide bomber in an Oscar-nominated Palestinian film, and doctors from both sides of the conflict.

OJR: " Sites is not the first journalist to try to capture the human dimension of the conflict through the stories of individual people. But he may be the first to fully capture and illustrate the level of numbness and exhaustion that has set in among both Israelis and Palestinians from years of fighting. It is easy for reporters to forget that we need to see the people who make up these two societies, to understand how the seemingly endless cycle of violence has affected them."

So, although Sites may not be doing the investigative reporting we need to keep authorities in check, he is providing a valuable service through his mixture of text, images, video and interactivity that complements traditional journalism.

Still, the future of such projects is not certain, as it has been noted that traffic to the Hot Zone has not been satisfactory.

Source: OJR