Open The Dialogue

As PR practitioners, we’re paying close attention to how the media landscape (digital or otherwise) is evolving.  Usually, this is at a very granular level.  How a key magazine or newspaper folding might affect clients we do work for on a daily basis.  However, as an industry evolves, there is always opportunity to look at how it provides value on a daily basis.

In short, I’ve found this really interesting.  Finding out how new tools and technologies are helping change the face of news/journalism/the media and, most importantly, rise above the din.  There are two instances that I’ve come across in the past week that have stuck out a bit more than others.

• Kudos to NPR for making an automated Twitter account pretty impactful (it almost makes up for the fact that their videos are no longer embeddable but that is an argument I’ll make another day).  Via the Neiman Journalism Lab, they’ve created an experimental account that mines NPR’s archives trying it’s best to deliver contextual news.  This, usually, isn’t breaking stuff – it’s background.  It’s the information that helps us understand why and how current news items are relevant.  How it works:

NPRbackstory uses Google’s Hot Trends data to determine what topics people have suddenly started searching for in large numbers. It uses NPR’s API to search the archives, then uses Yahoo Pipes to create an RSS feed that then gets cycled into the NPRbackstory Twitter account.

The process isn’t perfect but this is a step in the right direction.

• Blogs and micromedia are also a hot-topic in government.  Should Twitter be on Capitol Hill?  Why should my Senator be blogging?  Senator Claire McCaskill takes this issues to task, pretty directly:

I use Twitter because no one can edit me. In a media world driven by an edited sound bite, and a Capitol Hill culture that parses, obfuscates, and works hard at saying nothing, we shouldn’t look down our noses at a few short declarative sentences. While this method of direct communication makes my staff nervous – they think it makes me look less “senatorial” — it is me.  I’m a Midwesterner, and this short simple way of speaking is my native tongue.

I especially enjoy her close.  ”Social media” is about real people, real conversations and our real lives.

Finally, it’s fun. Trust me when I tell you that part of the problem in Washington is that folks there take themselves way too seriously. As I tweet about my college basketball team,  global warming, my kids, reverse mortgages, music, and  tax policy, or as I Tumblr blog about rules of voting on the budget  and my creamed spinach recipe, I’m staying connected, grounded, and I have a smile on my face.

Journalism as we know it is undergoing some serious changes.  Alarm bells have been ringing with the closing of multiple newspapers nationwide while others have gone all-digital.  Readership of newspapers has been in free-fall which has precipitated an even worse free-fall of ad revenue.  As the death spiral continues, the prognosis of traditional journalism is less than bleak.  Here’s a piece by CBS News this past Sunday:

The piece certainly seems to show the industry in a state of panic.  While newspapers may be on its deathbed, journalism itself is an essential component to our society.  The availability of truthful information is crucial to a healthy democracy, economy and security.  That much is certain from the experience of the last few years.

Advice for newspapers on ways to weather this storm have been aplenty.  Some traditional outlets are trying out new business models to stay afloat.  U.K.’s The Guardian is trying out a different model while the Huffington Post will announce tomorrow of creating a fund to fill the gap of investigative journalism left by traditional presses.  At the same time, Tech Crunch is reporting that online journalists are feeling good about future prospects.

Journalism as we know is dead or soon will be, so long live the new journalism that is poised to take its place