I like to think that my colleagues and peers are smarter than me, work harder than me, and with the exception of Craig Newmark and any L.A. Weekly reporter, are infinitely better looking than me (I tried to post my photo but TypePad kept replacing it with a picture of an engorged Ferret, which bore an eerie resemblance to my High School Yearbook portrait.)
I still believe this to be true – at least the “smarter” part anyway. But in the past few days I have come to realize that in the world of modern media and the new journalism, there are far more questions than answers among experienced communicators and journalists. There is awareness of great change yet uncertainty over its meaning. They know things will be different, they’re just not sure if they need to care before they can start living off their 401Ks.
Filling the “Conversation Gap”
This week my business partner, Linda, delivered a presentation to a group of public relations and marketing professionals about blogs, RSS (content sydication) and podcasting. We figured blogs would be the shortest section – everyone knows the power of blogs by now, right? Instead, blogs took up the bulk of the presentation, with these pros asking sincere questions about what a blog is (“is it like a chat room?” one person asked), whether they are important and how could they possibly be used in communications – in “real life.”
RSS blew the group away (“What will happen to PRNewswire?” someone said.) By the time Linda got to podcasting the audience was spent, and many went home that night either to start their own blogs or curl into a ball by the fireplace and quietly weep.
At the same event, a reporter told us that while she knew what a blog was, most of the other reporters at her paper were either unaware or unconcerned. Those that knew about blogs were anxious about their careers, wondering if they could last long enough before blogs, Craigslist and other factors cost them their jobs.
The next day, Canadian PR practitioner David Jones posted a comment on Linda’s new blog, the Modern Mediasphere, and urged Linda to help make sense of “Web 2.0.” Jones said:
“With so much discussion on so-called PR blogs about who's blogging, who's using RSS, who's podcasting and all the cool new web 2.0 tools coming online every day, I've found there is a real gap in the conversation. It sounds like you're going to answer the inevitable ‘so what?’ question that those who have yet to drink the Web 2.0 Kool-Aid seem to ask either directly or with blank stares.”
Abandoning the Echo Chamber
We talk about Big Media being in an echo chamber (especially in relation to early coverage of post-9/11 Iraq), but I have seen the echo chamber, and we are it.
Most PR people and journalists don’t read the PR and journalism blogs, only PR and journalism bloggers do. We talk to each other and wax poetic about Web 2.0 in a world where our colleagues are still trying to master their Outlook inboxes.
And you know what? That’s just fine. The online community is still a community, so it's logical that we would spend most of our time talking to each other. We need to learn, too.
So let’s not stop – but as we move ahead, let’s also work extra hard to educate our colleagues (yes, that also means our competitors, just get over it.) Let’s keep asking ourselves “What does it mean?” and “What is it good for?” before proselytizing our gospel to the great unwashed.
It’s easy to get swept up in the early adopter vortex and look at blogs in our rear-view mirrors. But remember what those mirrors say: “Objects are closer than they appear.”
Newspapers Media Marketing News Media Journalism PR Public Relations
Whenever I want to learn about some new communications trend or technology, I don’t turn to the blogosphere – at least not right away. First, I turn to the office next door, where my business partner, Linda Zimmer, is already far ahead of me.
But now I can go online and find the same high level of thought and balanced perspective that I get from Linda – and so can you, because Linda has launched a new blog, The Modern Mediasphere™.
I’m obviously biased – The Modern Mediasphere™ is a publication of our company, MarCom:Interactive, and I will post there occasionally as well – but this is a blog I have been waiting to read for a long time. It’s easy to get buried in blog posts about new technologies and trends of the moment, but it’s near impossible to find out what all this great new stuff means for our clients, our world, and us. The Modern Mediasphere™ hopes to change that.
As Linda says in the blog’s inaugural post:
“I started this blog with the goal of helping people new to modern media (new media) find out what new and emerging media mean - practically - to them, their business, their practices, and the people who touch those businesses. I want to help answer the question "what is [insert new media here] good for?" It is the number one question we get from our own clients and the people we meet through our presentations and seminars. The immediate next question is, "so, what does it mean for me?"
“I'm committing to answering these questions specifically via this blog. I’ll be pointing to new models and new media technologies, examine how they are being put into use, what trends they express, and give ideas on how they fit into professional communications programs or strategies.”
Check out the Modern Mediasphere and let us know what you think. Share your comments about how you might use virtual sticky notes in your communications, or about anything else you come across as your join Linda on a tour of modern media in action.
If this doesn’t work for you, then there’s always the option of going to Linda office. Just be sure to call ahead – and remember, I still have first dibs.
The First Age of blogging – the age of novelty – is coming to an end.
It was fun, wasn’t it? The bloggers who blogged about blogging, the apoplectic glee over the beta releases of innocuous software tools, the autoerotic joy of being an “A-lister.” The professional communicators who urged their peers to start blogging, only to skewer them in a global display of schaedenfreude when they failed to follow some unwritten rule of blog etiquette.
Oh, and all the PR bloggers who now thought they were journalists because they were getting “pitched” stories, and then publicly complained about receiving poorly crafted or off-topic pitches – the same complaint made by journalists since the invention of the byline. I’ll miss that the most.
All good things must come to an end. The First Age was great, but now it’s time to move on.
From Novelty to Utility
2006 is the year when blogging moves from novelty into the “utility” phase, where the mere act of blogging is subsumed by what is being published, as well as how to find, use and participate in that information.
Blogging has produced a dizzying amount of content. It’s online to find, provided you have the patience, tenacity and time to look for it. Because most people also have jobs and only a basic level of technical skill, establishing some logical order is paramount for self-publishing to realize greater impact.
Already we can see this trend toward aggregation and organization of blog news and commentary. Tagging is a powerful tool that allows creators to categorize their own content. Commercial blog “networks” are being formed and expanded – Gawker Media, Weblogs, Inc., and Pajamas Media are just a few. Sites like J-Log and Corante find the best blog posts about specific topics and put them in one place – yes Virginia, there are still editors in the blogosphere. And then there are the Huffington Post and Truthdig, not traditional blogs but not traditional mainstream media, either.
This doesn’t mean fewer people will start their own blogs – on the contrary, I expect the meteoric growth of blogs and self-publishing to continue (this includes My Space, Gather and other social networking sites). People will still gossip, share recipes and debate “Lost” plotlines – and some will publish news and share their expertise on any number of topics, either by blogging themselves or by commenting, starting and joining conversations (blogging is still the ultimate “social” media – without links and conversations, blogs are just brochures).
But eventually, individual blogs will be less important, and likely less visible, than the content published by the creators and the conversations that ensue.
Is Cathy Seipp a blogger or a writer for Pajamas Media? Will that distinction matter as long as she attracts readers – more importantly, readers that advertisers want to reach? Bloggers are learning that they are not only more visible but also more financially appealing to business if they band together. Or as Spock would say, the good of the many is more important than the good of the few or the one.
(By the way, that was my first Star Trek reference in more than 80 posts – that’s got to be some kind of blogger record.)
No More Bloggers
As technology becomes more essential, it becomes more invisible – and when everyone is blogging, there are no more “bloggers,” just people interacting in ways they never before could have imagined. After all, someone who talks on a telephone isn’t called a “phoner,” any more than someone who communicates via a blog today will be called a “blogger” tomorrow.
“Bloggers” will become writers, publishers, producers, filmmakers and multicasters. More mainstream media will use blogs and more “just folks” will become part of larger citizen media publications such as Backfence or other hyper-local enterprises like Muncie Free-Press, the Missourian or Bayosphere.
The perception of blogging and blogs will change, too. Mainstream media will be less cynical and defensive (funny what loss of audience and revenue will do), and new efforts to marginalize inaccurate or untrustworthy content will move blogs up from the kids table of online discourse. As Jonathan Landman, Deputy Managing Editor at the New York Times, said in a memo to his staff: “Some blogs are lousy. So are some newspapers. Some blogs reject journalism. Some practice it.”
I agree. Some blogs are good, some are bad, and in 2006 we will pay more attention to banishing the bad and rewarding the good.
Rejoice. The Second Age has begun.
blogs social media tagging modern media journalism news media public relations Blogging
The online world – for all its vastness, connectivity and influence – is insulated. That’s not a problem for most people, considering that the online world often makes more sense. But unlike your typical EverQuest player, I have to live in the real world, too.
I was in the real world over the weekend – specifically at Target and Wal-Mart. These are the places where real world people gather, where they buy goods without paying for Super Saver shipping; where people talk to each other rather than communicate in symbols that look like a computer got stuck on the shift key and threw up.
I didn’t do a survey, but if I did, I expect most people would have felt left out of the online world, not “Linked In.” Tagging would have been something you do to a freeway overpass, and blogs would have sounded like some new snack cracker (“Try new Nabisco Blogs, now with 50 percent less spam!”)
So I wondered, as I rushed past the guy signing up volunteers to patrol the California-Mexico border: how will these people, this “general public,” get the news?
The Rights of the Majority
OhMyNews says “every citizen is a reporter,” but that’s not possible. Yes, every citizen can be a reporter, but not every citizen should or will. Every person will get news, but not in the same way, not at the same time, and not with the same perspective.
The future of journalism will be far more distributed than centralized – far more participatory than solitary. Journalism has already changed, but to say any one form is dying or giving way to others is to deny the value each brings to the equation and, in a real sense, excludes the multitude who do not have or cannot afford computers, don’t have access to technology or are too busy feeding their families to set up an RSS feed.
News must include everyone, especially those who either don’t want to or cannot participate in creating news, or who do not have the technical or financial means to be “modern” news consumers – in other words, the majority of people on the planet. So how do we serve and protect their right to be informed, regardless of race, class or social standing?
As anyone who has been following this topic can tell you, the questions come easy – it’s the answers that are hard. I don’t know what will happen either, though I go to bed each night praying that Geraldo Rivera gets amnesia and starts a new life as anything but a reporter. It’s not much in the grand scheme, but at least it’s progress.
Branches of the New News Media
Nevertheless, regardless of my poor prescience, I see the “new” news media functioning as three branches of involvement, each as vital as the other and with appropriate checks and balances:
• Mainstream Media – Yes, there will still be a mainstream media, though its purpose will be more focused and its purveyors more humble. Mainstream media will create journalism in a public service role, making the most of its experience, depth and access.
• Citizen Media – Citizen media will create public journalism in a mostly “hyper-local” role, focusing on issues close to home. And it will hold the mainstream media accountable to both the public and the truth.
• Consumers – otherwise known as Just Plain People. They will participate by reading, watching and listening – and when they choose (whenever they choose), they will comment and interact. They are just as much a part of the “media” as anyone else, because media is no longer a passive exercise. Media are now accountable to each other, from the Wal-Mart shopper to the head of CNN.
There is a “fourth branch” as well – the former “mainstream” journalist who works exclusively online, or the journalism school trained reporter who has only worked in new media and not for a “traditional” media outlet. This journalism version of a mash-up may prove to be the most popular of all, as today’s reporters become more disillusioned and tomorrow’s reporters become more comfortable with all new forms of media.
The online world is insulated; the real world often is left behind. Journalism transcends both worlds – and it can be the force that brings the two together.
journalism new media news media citizen journalism mainstream media journalism next
Far be it from me to give advice to Apple’s Steve Jobs. In a few short years he’s managed to make Bill Gates his Salieri and Michael Eisner look like the Hunchback of Notre Dumb. I bought a PowerBook last year just to be safe, lest I die and find out heaven runs on Linux. With all the natural disasters lately I had assumed God was a Windows user and Katrina was merely the result of a hard reboot, but you can’t be too sure about these things.
Nevertheless, I have an idea for Jobs’ ITunes service. ITunes should allow users to tag music, podcast and video content.
Yes, you can search via keyword, but the results tend toward the rigid and general. And besides, one person’s hip-hop is another’s “dance music.” Music, more than any other form of expression, is emotional and personal, so it makes sense for people to categorize music based on their feelings.
Tags create an “evocative view” of content. For some, a press release on health care should be tagged “healthcare.” For others the tag might be “press release,” or “PR,” or “financial disclosure.” Content online is what people say it is, and that varies from person to person.
So why not search for music on ITunes based on things like mood or politics rather than genre? I could tag Bruce Springsteen’s “Devil’s and Dust” as “anti-war,” U2’s “Vertigo” as a “party” song, or anything by Morrissey as “thoroughly depressing.” Sure, there are dangers – I could also tag Ashlee Simpson tunes as “must have.” Reward is not without risk.
Of course this will never fly in Cupertino. Jobs is too much of a control freak to allow users that much freedom on a site that churns 1.2 million music downloads a day and just sold more than 1 million videos in little more than a fortnight. Jobs refuses to eat cereal for breakfast because he can’t control the snap, crackle and pop. I’m still shocked he allowed the Ipod Shuffle to go to market.
That’s okay, Steve. Tell you what, just go ahead and renew the Pixar-Disney deal, and I promise to use my Disney stock gains in the ITunes store. Oh, and a VIP seat in Linux heaven would be great, too.
Time for a horn toot (or in light of the coming Jewish High Holidays, perhaps a Shofar) -- our company was mentioned in a BusinessWeek article on tagging, as part of their "Best of the New Web" section. The article mentions how we incorporate tagging into our modern media seminars and training courses (we have one more this year.)
A couple months ago we were cited in a Forrester paper about RSS, too -- either we are getting more attention or modern media tools are, but either way we'll take it!
I agree with Steve Rubel that “big media” needs to evolve if it hopes to survive – and that includes embracing the audience as both a contributor to news and as a consumer of news. But this doesn’t mean, as Steve suggests, that media companies need to go to an all-blog format.
Blogs are a means, not an end. They power social media and interaction, but blogs are only as powerful as the people who use them. Media companies can go “all blog,” but as Steve also says, people will expect professional journalists to speak with the same personable, open tone as citizen journalists.
This trend – the move from a journalism of pronouncement to a journalism of participation – will happen whether journalists write online in a blog format or in the paper that gets thrown in your bushes every morning. This is about the journalist as much as the journalism.
Today’s journalists are “getting it” (some are even eschewing e-mail and are using tags to help with their story research), but tomorrow’s journalists are already living the “what I want, where I want it and how I want it” lifestyle. They communicate plainly and openly via the web, mobile phones and other modern means. And unlike the “old days” where news was controlled by a top-down hierarchy of editors and gatekeepers, today’s journalism begins from the “bottom-up” – a mutual collaboration between the reporter and the audience in a boundless news cycle fed with conversation.
I agree with Steve when he says: “Social media is not an add-on,” but is a “way of life that evolves journalism from monologue to dialogue.” I would add another step to journalism’s evolution: Media institutions no longer matter; individual journalists do.
I always believed that computers would take over the world. In fact I prayed for it, figuring that quirks in binary evolution and chaos theory would make computers more intelligent than humans, or at least more intelligent than Ann Coulter, which can also be accomplished by crossing a Barbie doll with fresh vegetables.
Google may not be taking over the world, but the search giant is nevertheless trying to organize it. According to The Associated Press, Google Print is Google’s attempt to create a massive digital text repository – the company plans to scan millions of books from the Oxford, Harvard, Stanford and Michigan University libraries, as well as the New York Public Library (at least the books that weren't destroyed in the first “Ghostbusters” film).
Europeans are protesting this “Americanization” of world literature and thought. Hollywood movies and Reality TV shows are fine, but Europe wants us to keep our fat, Cheetos-stained fingers off Proust.
Some European leaders are considering a "European digital library" to give lesser-known authors a place at the digitization table. In classic overstatement typically reserved for college football coaches, Jean-Noel Jeanneney, president of the French National Library, accused Google of “hijacking the thought of the world.”
This may be true, but given a choice, I would rather have Google hijack my thoughts than the current U.S. Administration, which frankly has a big head start. And I’m not sure a European version would be any better nor fairly represent Africa, South America or the Far East, especially China. If you want to talk serious global takeover, try ordering a latte anywhere in the year 2020 without using Mandarin.
That said we should encourage Google and the European Union to digitize, catalog, organize and otherwise make available any and all material than can be reduced to zeros and ones. Those who can think for themselves will continue to do so; those who can’t will continue to take orders from Rush Limbaugh no matter how much Finnish poetry is made available on the Internet.
The real concern is at what point does a thought cease to exist if it’s not expressed online? Do you exist only if you come up in a Google search? If so, does that mean I don’t need to get my sister anything for her birthday until she starts a blog?
So many questions, so little time before my next Tao of Hyperbole lesson. I'll leave you with this: If I have to choose between people and computers to tell me how to think, I'll take my chances with the machines. At least I can turn them off.
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