Comments on: Is Politico a news organization, a meme organization, or what?

By: Sharon Stevenson

Sharon Stevenson — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:21:44 +0000

I’m chagrined to see that even in this worthy and intriguing interview, that neither party bothered even mentioning the foremost reason why we have a free press and that is, freedom of the press as I learned in journalism school, thank you, was granted primarily to better inform the electorate. Once you lose sight of this base principle then the back-slide of democracy begins.
It may indeed come to the point that only the so-called educated elite will be willing to pay for content that does indeed go to the heart of informing them in order to vote for and keep a rational, stable form of government.
Perhaps my experiences in Central America in the 80s and Peru through the 90s have colored my judgement and appreciation for our First Amendment rights beyond the pale of blogs and twitters. And like it or not, a large part of said appreciation comes from understanding that essential investigative journalism that is the underpinning of the ability to “inform” costs heavily in time, endurance, determination and sheer money.

By: Jason Fry

Jason Fry — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:03:25 +0000

Very interesting discussion. As I wrote on my own blog (trackback below), I was really grabbed by the discussion of the “conversation” and journalism’s fixation on it.

From my point of view, the conversation is one way of measuring success at what’s really needed: creating loyalty and habit among readers. I think newspapers get fixated on the conversation (and risk missing the larger goal) for a couple of reasons.

1. Awareness of the “conversation” is a big cultural change for journalists used to handing down pronouncements from the mountain top of print and maybe hearing back from readers via a letter to the editor.

2. Entering into the conversation or helping it along is something journalists can actually do — good luck changing your site’s nav and design to attract readers coming in to a single article, but, hey, you can respond to a comment.

None of that addresses Wasik’s larger points about viral culture and how that can drive news coverage to a debilitating focus on what will spread, but I do think it’s an important aspect of the problem newspapers face.

By: The Conversation, Habit and Loyalty « Reinventing the Newsroom

The Conversation, Habit and Loyalty « Reinventing the Newsroom — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:47:13 +0000

[...] Context, Cultural Change, Social Media by reinventingthenewsroom on July 16, 2009 There’s an interesting video over at Nieman Journalism Lab in which Bill Wasik, author of “And Then There’s [...]

By: MichaelJ

MichaelJ — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:15:19 +0000

A very interesting thread. The ability to measure on a granular level usually makes explicit what has been implicit. Once it is explicit, it’s amenable to reflection and innovation.

You nailed it when you said, “There are many elements of “viral culture” that get pinned to something unique about the Internet when, in fact, the Internet is just making the same, age-old trends more visible.”

My take is that the big change in the news happened with TV. Isn’t a meme very similar to a soundbite? We’ve been living in the age of soundbites since broadcast, then accelerated by cable. The internet changes the quantity and seems to be taking us in the direction of changing the quality as well.

By: EP

EP — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:59:19 +0000

This is indeed fascinating. It also raises the question whether the newspapers and news organizations of the early 21st century can afford not to use social networking and bookmarking strategies and to “stay in sync with readers.”

By: Zachary M. Seward

Zachary M. Seward — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:43:01 +0000

Thanks, Michael! This post concludes the book club, but it’s definitely a topic I’d like to stay focused on — both because I find it endlessly fascinating and because it’s obviously crucial to the future of news. What I’d really like to look at is how some news sites are trying to fit into the viral web: how they use social-networking and social-bookmarking sites, when they post content to stay in sync with readers, and (ideally) strategies that have never occurred to me. Because it’s one thing for me to say that newspapers should “play that game,” but the unanswered question is how they might play it. —Zach

By: Michael Andersen

Michael Andersen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:35:23 +0000

I’m really enjoying this in-depth coverage of viral culture, Zach.

By: Zachary M. Seward

Zachary M. Seward — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:39:33 +0000

That’s a good point, Sergio. There are many elements of “viral culture” that get pinned to something unique about the Internet when, in fact, the Internet is just making the same, age-old trends more visible. But I don’t think that’s entirely the case, and part of Wasik’s point in his book is that our heightened awareness of this stuff — in this case, of our content’s popularity — focuses our attention on it and changes how we operate. The existence of a most-emailed list makes reporters want to be on it. I think that’s right, but it doesn’t bother me as much as it bothers Wasik. —Zach

By: Sergio Abranches

Sergio Abranches — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:31:04 +0000

Well, I think this is just the digital version of breaking news, competitive journalism. One might like to call it “viral journalism, or “meme journalism”, to use the words of the day, but being the first to tell, the most cited, and to make opinion is classical journalism translated to the World of real-time news.