Davos on blogs
: Just found this session on blogs — “Will Mainstream Media Co-opt Blogs and the Internet?” — on the World Economic Forum agenda for its January meeting in Davos:
Traditional media sources are still the primary source of information; however, Internet news sites, especially non-mainstream outlets like blogs, are challenging journalism’s traditional rules. 1) How is the media landscape evolving? 2) What are the implications of this revolution for traditional media suppliers, producers and viewers? 3) How should the mainstream media make competitive use of these new outlets?
Hmmm. Wonder who’s on that panel. (Update: I now see that, of course, Joi is; I should have looked at Joi’s site first. Any preview, Joi?) As a big media-little media guy, I’ll volunteer…
And I think the title has it exactly backwards: Will little media coopt big media is a better way to look at the question….
And don’t just think in big-country big-media terms. Look at the Iranian weblog revolution for the true potential of this new medium. Talk about globalization!
: I added my 2 cents into the comments here. And see Doc’s 10 cents here. Dave Winer agrees: They asked the question quite backwards.
: This one looks intriguing, too:
The different approaches to reporting the War in Iraq and its continuing aftermath have illustrated the lack of consensus on journalistic and editorial norms. With states, media owners and audiences demanding reporting, which mirrors individual beliefs as opposed to impartiality and objectivity, the legitimacy of media is challenged and threatened. 1) Do the divergent styles of reporting on television and in the press represent a healthy plurality? Or are they a disturbing new trend away from objectivity? 2) Is there a ‘correct’ way to report issues — certain journalistic norms — or are all approaches equally valid? 3) Will future reporting become more partial as news organizations try to satisfy target audiences?
I posted this in Loic’s blog:
I think you need to look at this not from established media’s perspective but from the perspective of the people.
I am fond of saying that thanks to the Internet and weblogs, the people now finally own the printing press and gain its power.
And I’m a big media guy (who also now lives in the world of small media).
Most big-media organizations are starting to look at this — if at all — the way you do: How do we take our content and put it into weblogs?
That’s the wrong question and the wrong answer.
What they should be paying attention to is the tremendous new content, new information, new news, new viewpoints, new diversity coming from the people who are creating weblogs. Rather than trying to do their own weblogs, why not start by listening to what is being said in the weblogs the people formerly known as the audience are producing? Why not embrace their content, their information, their viewpoints?
Weblogs expand the world of media tremendously.
Media needs that, just as the industry is being hit with new competition and new pressure (e.g., losing millions in classifieds to new players and new relationships; losing channels of sale for magazines; losing the mass audience TV had…).
This is the extension of the nichefecation of media that has been occurring ever since we got the remote control.
But even more important, look at Iran, where one person started a revolution in weblogs; in less than two years, there are now an estimated 100,000 Iranian weblogs writing about politics, sex, women’s rights, music — things forbidden in that country. And they are writing in English as well to get their story to the rest of the world, a story that otherwise could not get out.
This is not about big media dipping its toes into little media.
This is about little media setting the agenda and the future of news and information.
