Savaged: Mainstream Media’s Love (Free Content) Hate (Scooped Again!) Relationship With Citizen Journalists

By Chris Savage

By some estimates, there are close to two hundred million blogs in the world, about half of which are in the United States. This number is growing each year. At the same time, the size and number of what are considered mainstream media outlets is dropping. Newspapers are downsizing and consolidating. Television news programs, by and large, are becoming more like entertainment shows with titillating teasers for upcoming stories and reporting that focuses more and more on conflict and sensationalism. Adding to the mix, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can take a locally important story and make it nationally or even globally known in a matter of hours, spreading like a virus across the Internet.

I was recently asked, with the rise of blogging and the apparent demise of our traditional media outlets, what role does blogging play in today’s media landscape? What is the relationship between independent bloggers and mainstream pundits and reporters? Are bloggers like me, for example, the conventional media’s biggest nightmare, or are we simply attention-whoring narcissists, waiting to be discovered for our 15 minutes of fame?

Before we begin, let’s get a couple of things straight. First, bloggers are, in general, attention-seeking. Few, if any, bloggers start a blog with hopes that it will remain obscure and unread. And the second point? The exact same thing is true of pundits and journalists. If bloggers are attention whores, pundits and journalists beat them to it by decades, maybe even centuries. Becoming well-known and widely read is the hallmark of a successful media person. Period.

Bloggers are in direct competition in many cases with both reporters and commentators in the realm of what we see as “news.” I’m not talking here of people with blogs that post pictures of their cats with hats or who repost their favorite YouTube videos. I’m talking about bloggers who are reporting on events and those giving commentary on those events. With the contraction of the major media outlets, fewer and fewer reporters are being deployed to the field. On most local news sites, you will see the top reporters filing multiple reports each day. This situation has led to a dramatic decrease in the amount of investigative journalism that is being done by all but the largest news organizations. While the New York Times or Boston Globe are able to pay reporters to spend weeks developing a story, smaller, more regional outlets cannot, leading to what I refer to as “reporting by press release” where news reports often are simply regurgitations of press releases issued by various groups.

A chief difference between bloggers and reporters is the perceived need for “balance” and impartiality. Unrestrained by the need for remaining unbiased about the news they are reporting, bloggers generally inject their own perspective into their posts. In a world where people increasingly seek out information from sources that agree with their worldview and political outlook, the role of bloggers is becoming more and more important and so-called impartial reporting less so. News consumers often gravitate to sources that aggregate information from a wide array of sources and put the news into context for them.

But bloggers can also act as “micro-journalists,” focusing on a specific topic or area with greater intensity. For example, over the past year, I have spent a great deal of time on my blog Eclectablog and elsewhere (including here at A2Politico) covering the issue of Emergency Managers in Michigan since the passage of Public Act 4. My dogged writing on this topic, often with breaking news and first-hand reporting, has gained considerable attention that resulted in my work becoming nationally noticed. Here is a segment from The Rachel Maddow Show on December 8, 2011 in which my blog is featured and my commentary is quoted at length:

Pundits are also getting a run for their money from bloggers and the more noticed a blogger gets, the more likely they are to replace or at least share the stage with the talking heads who work for major media outlets. Here in Michigan, I recently appeared alongside Lansing mayor Virg Bernero and Nolan Finley, Editorial Page Editor for the Detroit News on on Fox News Detroit’s Let It Rip! program (Video HERE.)

While pundits like Finley, Tim Skubik, Bill Ballenger, and Jack Lessenberry are typically the ones tapped for this type of commentary and public debate, there is a noticeable trend over the past year or two for bloggers who have focused on a particular issue and who have strong, well-formed opinions to be consulted, as well. Finley, Skubik, Ballenger, Lessenberry and their cohort are increasingly seen as “establishment” pundits, either affiliated with a large media company or making a living from giving their opinions. Bloggers can come across as more accessible and genuine, more real because they are generally not “professionals” and because they are, at their hearts, working toward social change through their writing. In other words, they ain’t in it for the money!

So, what of bloggers vs. the Big Media Goliath? A U.S. District Court last week determined that that a self-proclaimed Internet investigative journalist did not enjoy the protections of the state’s reporter’s shield law and fined a blogger for $2.5 million in a defamation case. Shield laws, of course, do not protect journalists from allegations of defamation. However the question remains: are bloggers actually the future of news reporting and punditry, or are they nothing more than opportunistic gnats buzzing around the heads of the “real” professional commentators and journalists? The Atlantic’s associate editor Rebecca J. Rosen offers an interesting perspective.

The answer to that question, in my opinion, is both. Because bloggers represent a new paradigm of sorts, they are certainly a threat to the status quo of today’s media environment. However, with the rapid changes happening in the mediasphere, even the phrase “status quo” has begun to become meaningless. The new models that emerge will likely be dominated by those who are the most creative and can deliver news and commentary in ways that are more tailored to today’s noisy media environment. Many, if not most, bloggers will remain in obscurity, waiting for their 15 minutes of fame. Others, those whose work has credibility and who have a unique voice & approach may well have a place at the table.

I’ll close with a final example of how things are changing. Two weeks ago, I published a piece here at A2Politico titled “County Commishes Suggest Euthanizing Local Humane Society Over Money Dispute.” The article discussed how the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners has proposed unilaterally slashing its payment for a contract with the Humane Society of Huron Valley (HSHV) in half even though they are receiving animal control services valued at three times what they currently pay. In the course of preparing that piece, I spoke at length with HSHV Executive Director Tanya Hilgendorf. I was invited in to talk with employees and photograph their facility and provided with a great deal of information. This morning, AnnArbor.com’s Ryan J. Stanton wrote about the issue, as well, in a piece titled “Possible outcome if Humane Society talks fail: More dogs euthanized and end of services for stray cats.” In that article was this nugget:

Smith said it was decided that County Administrator Verna McDaniel and Humane Society Executive Director Tanya Hilgendorf, who could not be reached for comment, are going to negotiate a one-month extension of the contract that will allow the two sides to continue negotiations into January without a disruption of services. [emphasis mine]

Why was Hilgendorf not available for comment? Was this a rushed piece and she couldn’t be reached in time? Or did she, in fact, prefer not to speak with Stanton? Either way, it’s a stark contrast to our A2Politico piece. It’s a situation that may have a lot to tell us about the outcome of David the Blogger vs. the Big Media Goliath. Who knows? Perhaps Eclectablog.com is more than a platform for an attention-whoring opportunistic gnat after all.

For more of Chris Savage’s writing and reporting, visit Eclectablog.com.