Post a Comment On: Bakersfield Observed

It should come as no surprise that the internet is now the preferred source for news for young people. The only surprise is it took this long. Alan Mutter's Newsosaur blog (link is below) triggered a sharp exchange of what this means for traditional media. What is clear to me is that "old media" (and that includes newspapers) has to change the way it views the world and open itself up to more user generated content. The newsroom does a splendid job of building high walls to keep non traditional news sources out of the paper; now it's going to have to learn to let people in. Consider this comment from Mutter's blog:

Once newspapers go broke, they won't be a source for the Internet anymore. But I can think of several good sources right off the bat:

(1) Media releases and other information provided by corporations, institutions, political parties and lobby groups. Of course, this will be biased, but no more so than the existing media. As it is, much 'journalism' consists of transcribing these sources anyway.

(2) Citizen reporting. With mobile phones becoming ubiquitous, capable of taking photos and even sending video streams in real time, it is increasingly likely that someone will be present at a breaking news event, recording it on the spot.

(3) Interested amateurs -- bloggers with a day job who are enthusiastic enough to pursue a story and analyse the details. We have quite a few good ones already.