Ever wondered how Social Media will affect traditional journalism? I pondered this over a delicious hashbrown at HeadQuarters in Westhaven on Saturday morning (well worth checking out their hashbrowns by the way, because they are just awesome!)
Think about it – as more and more newspapers go online there will be more and more opportunity for newspapers to capture not only the demographics of their readers but also what their readers are actually reading and what they think about it.
Journalist’s will be made accountable based on click throughs & comments left – internet statistics will change the way Journo’s are measured. Eventually newspapers will know which of their journalists are actually being read, and which are not. Which of their journalists are popular and which are not, and which of their journalists are annoying the crap out of their readers and which are not. Journalists adding true value will be promoted and offered more space – not because their editor likes them or their work – but because the ever important reader of the publication voted with their fingers and clicked/read/commented on that particular journo’s article.
It’s going to be a whole new ball game – Journo’s will be measured with internet driven KPI’s (key performance indicators). Reader hurdle rates will provide newspaper owners with ammunition such as reader-reach to indicate a jouno’s value (salary bracket). All of which will lead to the following important question being asked and answered: Should they (the journalist) be writing for the publication in the first place?
Gosh! Think about that – if newspapers go this way – imagine how slanted the news could get! Journo’s will be fighting for popularity and looking to appease – readers rather than challenge them. Common shock-jockey tactics used in this weekends paper (i.e. Fran O’Sullivan’s John Key article) may even cease to exist in an attempt to retain one’s job.
Can’t wait - should be a rather exciting time really, well… if you’re on the outside looking in that is.
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You make a good point … We can already see the “news” becoming not just something that is reported, but something that is portrayed as a viewpoint of the populace. How many time have you turned on the TV after a major event, and had a 30 ssecond intro from the presenter followed by half and hour of Vox Pops and comments from every man and his dog? The Internet, Social media and more importantly mobile apps make this all the more immediate. I can see a time in the not-too-distant whereby journalists will never even have to produce an original thought.. all they’ll be doing is processesing public opinion and distilling it for consumption. Frankly, that depresses me a bit…
Loving the blog btw – just one comment – us old people can’t read such tiny text!
By: Dunken Francis on January 31, 2010
at 9:44 pm
You make a good point … We can already see the “news” becoming not just something that is reported, but something that is portrayed as a viewpoint of the populace. How many time have you turned on the TV after a major event, and had a 30 ssecond intro from the presenter followed by half and hour of Vox Pops and comments from every man and his dog? The Internet, Social media and more importantly mobile apps make this all the more immediate. I can see a time in the not-too-distant whereby journalists will never even have to produce an original thought.. all they’ll be doing is processesing public opinion and distilling it for consumption. Frankly, that depresses me a bit…
Loving the blog btw – just one comment – us old people can’t read such tiny text!
By: Dunken Francis on January 31, 2010
at 9:55 pm