Keith PlocekToday at 10 a.m. local media maven Shira Lazar will step in front of an HD camera in a swank new Hollywood studio and debut What's Trending, a live online show devoted to what's hot on the internet. We spend a lot of time online (you don't wanna know), so we reached out to Lazar via email and asked her a few questions.
Tell us a little bit about your weekly show…
What's Trending is a live online interactive show with CBSNews.com around the top trending topics, stories and people shifting our conversation online. I like to say it's the talk news show for the digital age. Besides our live show every Tuesday at 10 a.m. PST, we also have an online destination with blogs and videos that keep you informed every day of the week.
Can you elaborate on how it's going to be interactive?
Being interactive seems just par for the course these days. Everything I do personally and professionally involves using digitally connected tools so there was no question of applying that to the show as well. Whether it be discovering stories that people are talking about, crowd sourcing ideas and questions or interacting live during the show by taking in comments and questions via social networks, we're doing it. The idea is that a lot of shows have social media added on top of their show, we're powered by it. It's how we get our stories and communicate. We've also partnered with some innovative tech platforms like Sulia to better curate those stories and find the most influential people at the source. Someone said something interesting recently about social vs participative TV. I think we're all naturally social at this point, the next challenge is how to create real participation.
You're definitely an on-camera vet, but are you nervous about the live aspect? What if something goes horribly wrong? OK, “horribly” is probably a strong word…
Sometimes you need to think of going live like doing yoga or meditation. You need to focus, be in the moment and most importantly trust yourself. You have to trust yourself that if something goes wrong, it's OK. Life moves on and so does the show!
What are some memes you plan on covering in your first few episodes?
Memes changes all the time, as you know, so there's no plan. There's definitely going to be some memes out of Newt Gingrich's president campaign slogan “Win the future”– I'll let you noodle on that one. While it's over now, we were definitely all over the memes that came out of the infamous Obama “Situation Room” pic. A meme vs. viral is a subject we talk about a lot in the office. Yep, we're all geeks!
Would you consider Tosh.0's Daniel Tosh a like-minded soul or a mortal enemy?
I would say more like a wacky successful older brother who will never get married!
All right, time for the lightning round…
Lolcats or Keyboard Cat?
Keyboard Cat
Socially Awkward Penguin or Courage Wolf?
Courage Wolf
XKCD or The Oatmeal?
The Oatmeal
Firefox
A long walk on the beach with Nick Denton or a candlelit dinner with Arianna Huffington?
Arianna Huffington – she's my hero!
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