I was watching the news the other night (because The Biggest Loser was on a commercial break), when something seemed a little bit off – I had read about the “breaking news” three hours prior to watching it on the network. I couldn’t remember exactly where I had seen it, but knew that the program was way behind in their coverage.
And then I remembered my old pal, the Internet. The news felt old because I had seen it in a blog. Now I can’t say for sure that the journalists ripped their information from some obscure blog entry, but found it fascinating that a major news network lagged behind information reported by a citizen journalist.
Most people (I think hope) have some idea about the growing role bloggers and social media’ers are playing in shaping the face of news, but it’s been hard to measure the effect these citizen journalists are having on the media….until now.
Brodeur just published results from a survey they issued to U.S. journalists, and the results are pretty incredible. In the report, nearly 75% of those surveyed said that blogs were having a significant impact on the “speed” and “availability of news”. Additionally, over half claimed that bloggers have a significant impact on the “tone” (61.8 percent) and “editorial direction” (51.1 percent) of their news reporting.
While this user-generated content may not always be 100% accurate, these bloggers have an undeniable effect on the way in which consumers receive their news. They require journalists to constantly stay on top of the blogosphere in order offer news that’s both competitive and timely.
But, even more importantly, bloggers largely influence these journalists to report on the information that consumers find important. 10 years ago, they may have been able to ignore the buzz happening on the Internet and report on stories that only editors found to be relevant. But today, many journalists focus their stories directly around Internet buzz and the impact that it’s having on consumer opinion.
Many of these bloggers are now positioned as subject experts on major news networks, and offer opinions that arguably outrival their traditional journalist counterparts.
It’s a funny thing to watch a grounded institution like the mainstream media shift so rapidly. And I’ve got to say that I love it.
More on citizen journalists in the upcoming weeks…
