Commentary by blog and social media consultant Josh Hallett on the use of blogs for public relations, media, marketing, communication & branding and from time-to-time the unsolicited opinion.
Mitch Glaser posts on the final day of WeMedia. Go read the entire post, but here is the choice quote for me:
Outside in the hall after the panel, NYU professor and PressThink blogger Jay Rosen told me that Lasica and I had not gotten through to them. Rosen had raised his hand but wasn’t called upon, but had a great analogy of what was wrong with MSM’s approach to citizen media.
“They are trying to change the vocabulary without changing the grammar,” he said. “They use the new vocabulary [of new media] but they are not changing their mindset, and accepting a loss of control.”
In other words, they might start blogs or podcasts or accept comments on stories, but they still believe their work is coming down from on high atop the mountain of Eternal Truth. The new truth of we media — lowercased — is that the media elite have lost the lock on media control, the old style of getting into a room and deciding what is news for the rest of us.
What I have always said is that many newspapers adopt the tools of social media, but not the community or methodology.
I wrote a few things about the WeMedia conference yesterday. Pondering them a bit more during my drive from Miami I wanted to post a follow-up. During the opening session on community there was a bit of soul-searching on the part of the traditional media. They know that the future for them is 'local' and 'community' and 'conversation' but do they really know how to do that?
When I deal with any media client that wants to 'embrace' social media and become more community oriented I always ask the same thing, "Do you know the names of your readers?" I know the answer to this before I ask it, but it's more of an exercise. Compare this to many individuals that run hyperlocal blogs, they know the names of their readers. They have a community.
One aspect of community is cooperation. During the community panel Jan Schaffer from J-Lab said she wanted to see more cooperation between traditional media on citizen's media. To paraphrase what she said, 'why is it that when a local paper looks at a new hyperlocal blog they say, "we need to do that to" and starts to compete, why not work together?'
Many times 'competition' in media is based upon ad sales. However many hyperlocal blogs don't accept advertising. The hyperlocal blogger isn't in it for money, they're just trying to provide the community information and discussion.
Somebody just brought up the point that the majority of the people in the room at WeMedia are from 'Big Media' and the big issue is the new wave of media from the people. So where are the people? Are they part of this discussion, this conference? Nope. That's what makes events like BlogHer so great...the attendees are the people.
Another attendee, Mike Orren with Pegasus News just stated, "There is still this notion that we speak, then they converse." We, being media, they being the readers.
A friend pointed out it's somewhat arrogant for a room full of 'big' media folks to talk about how citizen's media will work. I wonder what J.D. is thinking...he's in the front row.
Mitch Glaser - The reality is that the majority of 'local' papers aren't owned by local people, they're part of a large corporation. That's why many of these hyperlocal sites are successful. They're run by somebody that is truly local.
Update: Mitch has more to say over at MediaShift.
Thanks to the audience taking control of their media experience and creating their own media in blogs, podcasts, video and social networks, the people who are losing control have decided to meet — and meet, and meet again — until they figure out how they can take back some control of this uncontrollable situation.
Update 2: Jeremiah is attending his first conference that mixes traditional with social media. Read his thoughts.
This was one of my first dunk into a conference focused on the intersection of “traditional press/media” and “social media”.
There was quite a bit of confusion from this group, which was primarily journalists and folks from media. They don’t know how to fit, they don’t know what to do.
I'm sitting in the first session at WeMedia at the University of Miami, FL. Here are some quick notes:
Lisa Stone, BlogHer - What we're seeing with women bloggers is that they are no longer waiting to receive the news they are actively seeking the news, they're discussing.
Eduardo Hause, Daily Me - 123 Million newspaper delivered each day, 150 million over the weekend, compare that to only 50 million internet users reading news sites in a week
Shel Israel - Shel immediately questions the stats that Eduardo stated.....how many of those 123 million papers are read, what percentage of the paper is read by that smaller portion?
Ian Rowe, MTV - What we're also seeing is the change in the editorial process. Before it was a group of men sitting in a room deciding what stories would be reported and what show would be aired at 9pm on a particular night. That's changing.
Lisa Stone - Did we all really love Lucy or did we all watch it because it was the only thing on? In court reporting there are a number of lawyers that now cover trials via blogs, previously most court reporting was handled by traditional journalists that were not lawyers. There is a new level of expertise out there.
Question from the audience, what is community or is it communities? Many media folks thing community is their local geographic region.
To follow-up on this, just because I live in Central Florida, is that my community? No, I belong to many communities. Some real, some virtual.
The Guardian Unlimited has some coverage of this session as well.
