The digital media revolution has arguably hit the entertainment industry harder than those of us in the journalism business. But the technologies and content delivery strategies in question are common to both sectors. And with many non-media companies pursuing various forms of online content delivery, there’s now a lot of people now asking the same questions that media and entertainment folks have been asking for decades.

I sat down with Sony Pictures Television executive VP Jack Ford in Sydney at the VentureOne/AIMIA Commercialising Video conference to talk about digital media convergence.

Watch it here on AFR TV. And kudos to producer Marc Tewksbury for the slick editing.

Al Gore’s PR machine has hit Australia. He’s in the paper and was on ABC’s Enough Rope last night. He had some good arguments about climate change, and as you might expect, the anti-climate change people are responding in kind.

Debates about CO2 are a worthy discussion. What caught my attention was how the failed US presidential candidate seems to have got his head around social media. A good quote from the Enough Rope transcript.

ANDREW DENTON: How do we break that nexus between corporate interests and the way political decisions are made?

AL GORE: Well, I think that focusing on the role of money in politics is part of it. But I think that it’s really addressing one of the symptoms rather than the cure. I think that the larger challenge is to democratise the dominant medium, and fortunately, there are now new affordable digital video cameras and laptop editing systems, and young people particularly are learning how to use them. I have started a new television network called ‘Current TV’, and it’s on cable and satellite in 30 million homes in the US, and you can get a training course. We give a free training course to anybody in the world on how to make television. Then they stream the TV to us on the Internet, we post it, and let people vote on what they think the most compelling material is. Now, 30 per cent of our programming is made by the viewers. And if individuals in a nation or in a society are empowered to take part in the conversation, the key is having a meritocracy of ideas so that the people who are part of the conversation themselves decide which of the contributions from all these individuals merit more attention rather than less.

Australian TV media have finally woken up to the value of incorporating citizen journalism into the mix. But it’s interesting look at the approach of each outlet and what it says about their expectations for community participation. Here’s how it looks:

* The Ten Network have something called News Pics, which is an offer to be a "roving reporter" that sends them pictures via camera phones. But make sure you note the fine print: "you agree, in submitting footage to TEN to grant to TEN a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, unrestricted world-wide licence to use, and license others to use, your footage." There is no mention on the site, from what I can see, of what you gain in return for your efforts – that is, apart from paying mobile data charges. There are no guarantees the picture will appear anywhere, and if it is, whether they will credit it to you.

* Channel 9 calls their citizen journalism effort Newswatch. Like Ten, there is no promise of fame or fortune, as per the terms and conditions. They are, however, far more explicit about what you are giving away (my emphasis added): "In submitting Footage through the Footage Services, you grant to Nine an exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, transferable, royalty-free licence to use, copy, reproduce, edit, modify and exploit the Footage in any media, and to sublicence such rights to others, for any purpose whatsoever."

* The Seven Network offers a similar service that lets you send in news tips to any of their national newsrooms. I couldn’t see any obvious disclaimer about what you’re giving up. They do have a broad privacy policy, but it’s unclear how this relates to citizen journalism. What is more interesting is this big "7Listens" campaign, which has the potential to unearth some interesting stories (and some valuable marketing stats on who’s watching, what you think, and what you buy). But again, there is no clear statement on what you’re giving up or will get in return for your information. From a marketing perspective, it seems more important that you understand the bigger message that they care about you more than the other stations.

* ABC TV does not seem to offer any meaningful citizen journalism. There are plenty of RSS feeds and other goodies for the technically minded, including video on demand, but precious little in terms of community participation.

* Likewise, SBS has nothing.

The obvious conclusion to draw is that the commercial stations can see a financial benefit from involving citizens in the reporting cycle. They’re also not afraid to tell you that your content will be exploited for commercial gain with little credit given to you for your work. And so you’d have to ask why you’d bother, right?

Meanwhile, it’s surprising that the community-minded folks at ABC and SBS are behind the game on this given ABC’s embrace of digital media. And given the government’s penchant for cutting public broadcast funding, you’d think there were decent opportunities for ethical, intelligent contributions to help balance the equation.

So while we’re making some good progress, there’s a long, long way to go.

Ok, so I might be a little late, but I’ve rediscovered Andrew Denton. Before I left for the US some three years ago, Denton was one of the funnier guys on radio. He’s also been around the Australia media & entertainment circles for years. His latest latest effort on ABC TV is Enough Rope (plently of transcripts at the site, btw).

On last night’s show he interviewed Steve & Terri Irwin (+ a cameo from baby Bob), and Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir. Mir has interviewed Osama bin Laden three times over the years, and his insights into the mind of the world’s most wanted man were intriguing (eg. bin Laden has been eating lots of olives because he wants to make his four wives pregnant).

The Croc Hunter interview was also very watchable. Terri is actually a funny woman, and Steve actually had valid reasons (in his mind) for doing that how croc feeding thing with Bob.

So Denton seems like he’s on a roll. He’s generating a ton of news coverage from his bin Laden, Lisa Marie and Irwin interviews, and the show’s refreshingly amusing. And what’s more, since it’s the ABC you get a full hour of entertainment, news, and very skillful interviewing with no ads. Now there’s a novel idea.