Comments on: The biggest roadblock to media success? A traditional culture of journalistic hubris

By: angelica urquijo

angelica urquijo — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 21:26:33 +0000

Thanks for sharing. I’m a former broadcast journalist who transitioned to public relations. I now help organizations develop marketing and communications strategy to connect with their audiences. Social media is now at the top of the list and bloggers have become an important partner for both journalists at organizations. As noted in the piece newsroom budgets and staff … slashed. Non-traditional media–bloggers, citizen journalists are providing a much needed forum to cover a community or issue effectively. As a former journalist all we ask is that the facts are correct and we don’t rush to hit send.

By: chuck cain

chuck cain — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:32:28 +0000

Being in the eye of this storm, It’s become clear that the ever changing market forces, the disappearing revenue from traditional sources require that a more new/creative and traditional approach, that combines a 70% digital to 30% traditional mixture of resources(hard and soft) needed to produce a good product. Working more closely with the many different community and civic organizations, re-establishing and rebuilding the kinds of relationships that endure long past the last insertion order, almost seems like a blast from the past, The task is now to re-define and re-align those once highly valued relationships between business and the news outlet while becoming a very hyper-local news outlet for the community that’s served, As a local weekly in the midst of the storm, our focus now is to get back to the basics of relationship building in the community that we are proud to serve.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 10:19:36 +0000

Hey txpatriot, where was the accountability when the “traditional media” by and large ran the lies about Iraqi WMDs?

By: Chanders

Chanders — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:54:46 +0000

Hi Paul,

Chris Anderson here, author of the book Mathew is discussing. You might be interested to know that the book casts just as skeptical an eye on blogger / startup / citizen journalism culture as it does traditional journalism, though that isn’t as emphasized in the excerpt Mathew is drawing on here.

By: txpatriot

txpatriot — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:06:34 +0000

“hostility towards non-traditional sources was a huge barrier to collaboration”

Who can blame traditional media for being hostile toward “non-traditional sources” when old media (e.g., CNN and The Weather Channel) get slammed for relying on then reporting as fact some bogus tweet during Hurricane Sandy about the NYSE being under water? It was the old media that get slammed, not the lying SOB who tweeted the original falsehood.

So how exactly is this “collaboration” supposed to work when new media “sources” can lie at will with no accountability whatsoever?

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:03:52 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Paul — I would never argue that certain things about traditional journalism need to be “destroyed,” except maybe a culture that sees anything external or new as being of questionable value. And I have also never argued that everything new is flawless or should replace the old — the point I’ve tried to make is that new and old can support and extend each other.

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:00:07 +0000

Totally agree, Dave — great point.

By: Rocky

Rocky — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:35:08 +0000

It is not the news that makes money….its the ads and the flyers…as long as the companies using flyers to reach their potential customers continue printing and distributing in local papers….newspaper owners will continue to flog along lamenting about the loss of money. ..and drive their papers into the ground. It’s so last century.

By: Paul Knox

Paul Knox — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:24:48 +0000

Mathew, there are just as many prejudices on the other side: there’s no such thing as independent news-gathering; nothing a legacy news organization reports is independent/true/new/worthwhile; citizens and indies are the only trustworthy fact-checkers; reporting is the same as “truthmaking;” startups have no self-interest — the list goes on and on. Do something different for a change. Do what everyone wants legacy newsroom leaders to do: challenge your own followers. We know what you believe needs to be destroyed. Talk about what needs to be saved and built upon. That would be real news. Best regards, Paul.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:55:25 +0000

It’s like you wrote somewhere else, Matthew. The “production” of “truth” was always a process involving many people, not only journalists. But many journalists where able to delude themselves that they in fact where the sole truthmakers, because before the internet, most of the times they didn’t see regular folk fact-checking and scrutinizing their work.

Now that the whole process is out in the open in real-time, egos clash with reality.