[videoblogging] All News is Local (was:Gov't always wins the election)

Wed, 07 Sep 2005 10:46:41 -0700

Deirdre Straughan wrote:

Your inputs are always interesting, and I thank you for that.
 

And we can take it from there: Are there stories that citizen journalists
can do better than a traditional news organisation? Which? Are there
stories citizen journalists can't do as well? Which? Are there stories
where the two compete on equal terms? Which?

Stories citizen journalists can do better: Some thoughts: stories that seem "small" to big media and might get overlooked. Stories where it helps to be a local, known to the people you're interviewing, to get the straight story.

Stories the big guys can do better: War zones, unless you happen to live in one.

That's it, isn't it? I'd rather get the story from a local blogger than the most highly decorated war correspondent. The latter is and will always be an outsider.

What if we tried the dictum "All News is Local" on for size. I think the majority of stories are local to something, and are best covered by local people.

What about stories of an institutional scale? Reporting from the White House, for instance. But does anything occur on that beat that couldn't well be served by White House press releases and subsequent commentary on blogs? Administration spokesmen are too skilled to be baited into revealing anything in Q&A session that isn't one of the talking points. I think the shoe leather can be cut out of that loop with no loss at all.

So there you have it: being big press equals not just access to wide distribution, but also, BECAUSE of that distribution, better access to sources. Deep Throat today would probably still go to the Washington Post, not to a vlogger.

Deep Throat would put up an anonymous blog, as did Gorilla in the Room last year. We can question whether the tradition of anonymous leakers leaking to reporters is more reliable than blogs. I don't see why it would be.

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