>>Jonah Peretti: I got into this industry
accidentally.
I was a grad statute at the MIT Media Lab
and I was procrastinating doing my master's
thesis and I ordered a pair of shoes from
the Nike Web site customized with the word
"sweatshop" because I wanted to see whether
Nike would send me a pair of shoes that said
"sweatshop" on the side.
And they wrote back and said it was inappropriate
slang, so I explained that it was -- it means
a shop or factory where workers toil under
unhealthy conditions, it's in the dictionary.
Anyway, they didn't sell me the shoes but
this became an early email forward that reached
millions of people, I ended up on the "Today"
show talking about it even though I knew nothing
about sweatshop labor, and it made me think
what is happening to the media world that
someone who does some silly thing can reach
millions of people without owning a printing
press, without owning a broadcast pipe.
If people think something is worth sharing
and passing on to their friends, you can reach
a huge audience and from there, I started
Huffington Post and now Buzzfeed.
