Eszter Hargittai takes up one of my pet peeves - the fact that American TV networks spend a disproportionate amount of time on sports that the U.S. contingent happens to be good at.

I thought I’d get this rant out of the way before the season hits. Watching the Olympics in the US is no fun, because the only thing you can watch is Americans winning. You’d think the U.S. is the only country ever winning from the coverage. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for Americans to win, but I’m happy for other people to win, too. In fact, in some ways it’s much more interesting when you have a diversity of folks competing and this is portrayed clearly in the coverage. It gets boring fast when all you can hear is the U.S. national anthem.

Web 2.0 changes the equation a bit, I think. It, of course, allows people to customize their viewing based on their preferences and their schedules. But also, blogs, youtube and wikis reach niche audiences (such as the audience for the paralympics) which thanks to their geographical dispersion have never before been reached so effectively.

The Olympics this year promises to be unlike any before for the Indian disapora. Not only because Abhinav Bindra has won the first ever individual gold medal for India, but also because of Web 2.0. Because the diaspora is geographically dispersed (and therefore have not constituted a major media market anywhere outside of India), narrowcasting by means of Web 2.0 and related technologies appears to be quite effective in reaching this demographic. I would have missed the video of the Abhinav Bindra medal ceremony - for several days at least - had it not been linked to under "Videos being watched right now..."  off the Youtube home page. I feel like the Beijing Olympics has already delivered, and it is still the first week. Here is wishing Raj, Saina and the rest much luck.

Update: Raj and the United States gymnastics team win bronze!