Blogging the crisis
How times change. Not so many years ago we would be relying entirely on mainstream media (the one’s Scott is talking about) to “cover” a crisis such as the one currently unfolding in the Middle East. Now, in 2006, we can go online and hear directly from the people that are - quite literally - living the crisis. A case in point is Lisa Goldman, a Canadian living and blogging in Tel Aviv. I stumbled on her blog (On the Face) yesterday when one of her posts was mentioned in a quick hit on msn.ca. I followed the link and took a few minutes to surf her blog and some of the blogs she links to. I was taken with the stunning first-person accounts and stories that I came across - from all sides of the current crisis. Then, there she was being interviewed on one of the Canadian morning news shows.
For the skeptics out there (you know who you are) this is yet another example of the how the blogosphere is changing the way we communicate with each other. As professional communicators, perhaps we should be paying attention.
July 26th, 2006 at 5:39 am
Warren,
Indeed, the job of reporting international events, once solely the province of news people, is now open to any and everybody. Even though some folks do a great job of it, and I’m no longer a newspaper reporter, I feel a sense of loss. I was once part of what I felt was an exclusive fraternity (or in my case, sorority) of people - those whose responsibility was to serve the community in this particular fashion. I didn’t think I was better than anyone else, but I did think I was/we were special.
July 27th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
If “professional” communicators are just now paying attention, I doubt they’ll be in business much longer.
July 28th, 2006 at 8:32 am
Warren,
I agree that blogging has a place in the communication world. My question to you: do you know if Ms. Goldman verifies the reports she receives, checks the facts, validates the information? Journalists are trained to verify, check and validate — it’s one of the comforts we have in their reports. Bloggers are free to blog without any constraint for accuracy or validity.
Wilma
July 28th, 2006 at 9:20 am
Good questions, Wilma. In short, the answer is no. My question to you: do mainstream media (reporters) always check the facts or validate information? Yes, journalists are trained to verify, check and validate but when they hit the real world, how many succumb to the pressures of editors and owners to feed the info-tainment appetites of readers and viewers? How many give themselves over to the particular political leanings of their employer - be it right, left or upside down? Yes, there are still good journalists out there but it seems to me that the days when we could expect to read or hear “just the facts” are long gone. In many ways, it appears to me that reporters (journalists) are also now free to report without any constraint for accuracy or validity.
Over the past year, in speaking with communicators around the globe, it is clear that blogging does indeed have a place in the communication world. It was also clear that many of us are struggling with whether or not blogging is a “legitimate” form or journalism - in the sense that we have traditionally viewed journalism. Maybe we need to stop thinking in that traditional paradigm (sorry, I hate that word but couldn’t think of a suitable alternative). Blogging brings a new immediateness to events in the world as interpreted by the people that are living the experience. Do I still watch the news and read three newspapers a day? Yes. However, I also now search for blogs that address news items that interest me, which often provide new and interesting perspectives. As we all know, there are usually many sides to every story. I think there is a critical role for blogs in shedding some light on all of those sides.
July 28th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
Andrew Ryan, writing in The Globe and Mail from Hollywood while covering the summer promtion efforts by the US television networks, reported that what used to be a great party isn’t as much foun for lots of reporters now.
In the oilden days (like, last year, and the year before) they could make notes all day long, knock out a story in the hour or so before deadline, sent it back to the paper, and then relax until morning, probably making more notes, but not having to write.
Now, they update their newspapers’ web sites several times a day, and some even get involved inupdates based on blog / web site readers’ reactions to the stories as the day goes on.
On a different topic: I’m trying to remember the week or so when all ther journalists in the English-speaking world double checked their facts. “When in doubt, leave it out” and so on. Maybe, jsut maybe, when I was a reporter, in the mid-sisties.
BEeore that, newspaper wars reigned. After that, reporters — well, lots of them — turned into stenographers.
That meant that “accurate” was defined as getting the quote right. Whether the quote refleted honesty or accuracy did not matter. Just whether or not someone said something.
Which brings us back to individual credibility of journalists, whether they are writing on paper, on screens, on tv, or scripts for radio.
Now, vast numbers of journalists provide, at the bottom of their stories, ways to easily communicate with them by e-mail.
Yesterday, J.D. Roberts, ex-Toronto disc jockey, reported from Israel on CNN mentioning what he was told, but to the credit of his Canadian journalism training, also pointed out that CNN had not been able to confirm what they were being told.
BAK
August 1st, 2006 at 8:13 am
Good observations Warren. I just wonder what has really changed.
When I was a young foreign correspondent with Reuters, my editors told me: “Don’t believe what you read in the papers.” The point of this admonition was they did not want me to recycle untruthful garbage on the Reuters wire. Experience soon taught me they were right. When I checked the facts, much of the more attractive stories purveyed by the mainstream media turned out to be dubious. I learned early to look elsewhere for real news.
For 3 years I was posted in Communist countries where the media systematically distorted the news. Yet, somehow many people seemed to know what was really happening. Somebody found out, and people passed it on to each other, bypassing the media.
A few years ago, my sister stood as an opposition parliamentary candidate in a country where her party was denied any coverage at all by the mainstream media. She won two thirds of the votes gained by the candidate of the party which had been ruling for the past quarter of a century. How did the voters know she even existed, let alone the issues of justice and anti-corruption for which she stood?
The answer is again (I assume): word of mouth. Blogging is another form of word of mouth transmission of news. It may contain at least as much nonsense as the mainstream media, but it works efficiently and is as old as the hills.
That’s the world we professional communicators have been living in for a long time, even if it has not always been apparent. Let’s use whatever channels are available to us. And as consumers: caveat emptor!
Marcus
August 2nd, 2006 at 6:19 am
Warren, on my copy of the Report on Busienss today there’s a story about Petrocanada using Youtube, which the Globe says “commercials”, for lack of a better word, about gas prices. The link to youtube is http://www.youtube.com
The word “hijack” comes to mind. Petrocanada is not an amateur filmmaker. It’s the biggest gasoline company in Canada.
But the story goes on to explain some of Petrocanada’s thinking, other people are quoted, and the line I like best is this one, from Max Valiquette, who runs a company called Youthography; “This is a press release in the form of a video, and I think we’re going to see more of that in the coming years.”
Which is one of the reasons why I’m happy my younger son is planning to be a movie maker and animator.
BAK
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