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SALT LAKE CITY -- Time is your family's most precious resource. Shouldn't the media you choose be worth it?
That's the idea behind the Family Media Guide, a new feature on Deseretnews.com. The guide's logo is WYT, which stands for "Worth Your Time."
Chris Higbee, director of product management at Deseret Digital Media, said it's all about connecting with the community and using that feedback to help people make educated choices when it comes to media.
Higbee told KSL Friday morning, "With everything we have competing for our time, when you have a little bit of time to carve out, to unwind, you want to make sure it's worth it."
He said community is at the center of the media guide.
"Our readers came to us and said, ‘Look, the MPAA rating and movie time just don't cut it for us. We need more to be able to make a movie-going decision.' So when we built the Family Media Guide, we made sure to build community into it," he explained.
In focus groups, the Deseret News found people didn't trust MPAA ratings for movies. They felt the ratings were too Hollywood driven and didn't match their own values. The Family Media Guide provides the MPAA rating. Users then can tell others whether they agree with the rating, on a sliding scale.
"We built Facebook into the Family Media Guide so you're able to share your ratings and your reviews with your trusted network of family and friends and vice-versa," Higbee said. "We rely on the wisdom of crowds to come, and the more ratings you get, the greater feedback you're going to get."
He added that the site will expand in the future. "You'll go to the site today and you'll find movies. But soon you'll find books and other media as well."
To see the interview with Higbee, play the video on this page.
