Once in a while, a tech journalist comes along who inspires us to love digital culture all over again. If there’s any über-geek with both brains and beauty, it’s Amber MacArthur, new media specialist and podcaster extraordinaire.
Digital Journal — After five minutes of talking to Amber MacArthur, I realize why she’s an online goddess. In that short time, I struggle to keep up with all the websites she’s mentioning, and track how often she smiles when describing a cool video clip. There’s a reason geeks slobber over this 30-year-old tech journalist: She knows the Web inside out, and is proud to show it.
Anyone who watches Toronto’s CityTV International, where MacArthur produces and anchors the weekly digital culture show
Webnation, might think MacArthur is just another pretty face hired to make online culture more mainstream. Sure, she’s deadly cute — especially when she talks excitedly about MacBooks — but she spends more time surfing YouTube then she does primping her hair. Her daily on-air reports for CityTV put her in the public sphere, even if she has to look more manicured than she’d like.
“I would rather spend time researching a tech story than sitting in a make up chair for half an hour,” MacArthur tells me over a Thai dinner, steps away from her employer on Queen Street West. “I enjoy raw reporting, like video blogs and podcasting.”
To her ardent followers, no surprises there. She hosts
commandN, a weekly vidcast about all things tech, where the unscripted format allows the show’s team to control every detail. Her extracurricular projects don’t end there — she also co-hosts
net@nite, a Net-news podcast featuring Leo Laporte, a well-known tech guru. So does she get sick of all the URLs swirling around in her head?
“The tech world is changing at such a fast pace, I don’t want to miss a thing,” MacArthur says. “It’s important to be part of the online community that I’m reporting on. And I’m proud to be a voice of that community bringing Net culture to the public.”
Amber Macarthur produces and anchors City TV's weekly digital culture show, Webnation.
And what turns her crank, Web-wise? First, she explains how addicted she is to a certain social-bookmarking site. “Del.icio.us has replaced my brain,” she says, laughing. In the ever-crowded Web 2.0 world,
MacArthur gravitates to videos and apps that “either make me laugh or make life easier.” In the former category, MacArthur remembers a story she produced for CityTV on three Swedes who outfitted a Stockholm building with LEDs and allowed any cellphone user to control these lights. “That story combined electronics, mobile tech, streaming webcams — really giving it a cool factor,” she says.
Often, MacArthur doesn’t have to search for the hottest stories. “The gold always rises to the top on sites like
Digg or
Technorati,” she says.
Mentioning Digg.com perks my attention. When prodded, MacArthur reveals how her association with the member-oriented news site runs deeper than just info-gathering: She once dated Kevin Rose, Digg’s founder.
It’s been a wild ride for the Prince Edward Island native who’s gone from a Web marketing job in San Francisco, to a plum position as co-host on Call for Help on G4TechTV. Now dubbed “New Media Specialist” at CityTV, MacArthur is proud to spread the good word on all things Web — especially as one of the few women doing so.
“Most tech stories in the media are about gadgets and hardware, which might not interest women,” she says. “I want to cover stuff that won’t be skewed to a male audience.” She flashes a classic Amber smile. “Any company in the techspace that hired a woman would do very well, that’s for sure.”
