Newer Second Life residents may associate the popular blog, New World Notes, with Hamlet Au. The oldbies, however, know him as the former Hamlet Linden. He was hired five years ago by Linden Lab to be an embedded reporter in-world. He left a couple of years ago to write a novel about his experiences.

Now he's telling those stories in his new book, The Making of Second Life. In this machinima, by Lainy Voom, a female narrates several storylines that are illustrated for the viewers. Presented comic book style, some of the topics covered are cheating lovers, activists, and adult entrepreneurs. The book went on sale in February.

Keen followers of Second Life Insider, before we became Massively, will know we have, at various stages charted the reporting of Second Life in the media, as the media follows its own hype and backlash cycle. Now, MediaShift is reporting something we've been saying all along, although in their own way: the media cycle has missed the reality of the situation, virtual world and real world.

The whole article is well worth a read, as it contrasts various styles of (real world) reportage on Second Life, from Hamlet Linden as was, to Reuters, to Wired to CNN, and even has Wired's editor saying that both their hype and their over-the-top backlash were mistakes. The conclusion? A not very startling - it's better to, in the current terminology, embed your reporters or use local information than not, and particularly don't only listen to other journalists - but the steps along the way are well worth a read. They might be especially worth a read if you have to defend your engagement in Second Life to people that have only seen the backlash.

[Original lead via SLEd list]