Seriously, who is going to report the news?

I touched a nerve last week when I quoted this piece of conventional wisdom and answered with a dismissive "whatever."

To produce news, you need professionals who understand the standards needed to research, report and write on what happened. If newspapers die, reliable information dries up.

From the tone of the comments and the concern expressed by friends who called, I've realized that this is a real concern.

There are a lot of people who believe that traditional reporters are the initial source of news while the "new" media simply repackage it.   I can see how folks get that impression, but it's not accurate.  So let me tell you how the news actually works now and how I think it will work in the future.

The first principle that we must remember is that even at peak of daily newspaper readership, we all segmented our news.  Some people subscribed just for the sports page, business, politics, lifestyle or even just for the weather.  My sister in law subscribed to the Republic for the Soduku puzzle; my dad gets the Citizen for the golf coupons. Very few people are interested in all the sections.

Now when we segment our news, we are able to get a lot of it from the original sources.  Some of this is obvious.  You don't need a reporter to give you the weather, movie times or financial statistics.  But some of it is not so obvious.  There is a tremendous amount of news that comes straight from the sources and we customize that news into our own baskets.

In order to show how it works, let me show you my news basket.  My basket is customized to my needs and it provides me a tremendous amount of information that was never available from traditional newspapers.  You may not like my basket and it certainly won't meet your needs, but that's because I've tailored it to meet my needs.  When the reporters are gone, you will build your own basket. 

Here's what my news basket looks like:

Originators:

As recently as 15 years ago, if you wanted to know what, say, the Avondale City Council was doing, you needed to either go down and to city hall and get an agenda, or try to find coverage in your local paper.  The Republic would try to meet this need by providing a zone section and the little independent papers--like the Arcadia News for example--would fill in the gaps with detailed coverage. 

Now however, you can sign up to get all the agenda information directly from the source.  I follow the Corporation Commission, CAWCD, DEQ and DWR very closely, so I'm on all of their direct distribution lists.  That means that when the ACC calls a Special Open Meeting, DWR puts out its Legislative Agenda , or  DEQ expresses concern about its budget, I know about it immediately. I'm on dozens of these lists.

Spinners:

The automated announcements are efficient, but sometimes they lack context.  That's why I signed up for the press release distribution lists for the agencies and events that I follow.  So when Governor Brewer announces her appointment to the  Department of Weights Measures, or Maricopa County announces the results of the latest RAND study on Meth use, I get copies as soon as the Republic reporters do.  The mainstream papers will then dutifully follow up, and here.   

Accumulators:

Some issues that I care about aren't on my immediate radar, so I rely on interested parties who each have their own agendas and want to get their message out.  Brenda at Children's Action Alliance has an important perspective, as does Diane from Arizona PIRG, as well as Glenn Hamer from the AZ Chamber plus Tom Jenny from AFP  as well as Steve Voeller.  I'm also signed up for updates from the Republican side of our Congressional delegation plus a handful of other organizations that provide original content.  Sure, all of them have a perspective, but so do the papers.  I think I'm much better off without the journalistic gatekeeper to tell me what's important. 

Notice that all of those sources are passive?  They are automatically emailed to me and none of them involve traditional reporters.

In addition to relying on accumulators, I serve as an accumulator.  One of the commenter's complained that I don't write any original news, I simply comment on items in the papers.  That's because most of my original content is too specialized to put into Espresso Pundit, but here is an example of  news coverage that I supply to clients.

 My National Basket

Obviously I need a source for national news as well, and as you might imagine, my national basket leans towards politics, economics and law.   For pure economic news, I rely on Marginal Revolution; for law, I read the Volokh Conspiracy and for an interesting perspective on national politics, I read Powerline.  Of course, these sites often comment on mainstream sources, but they also use original material from government economic data or court cases. 

The most important part of anyone's national news basket is a good general accumulator.  I get most of my general news from Instapundit. Glenn Reynolds is a law professor who scours thousands of sources and provides a quick summary and link to scores of interesting articles each day.  Some of them are from Mainstream sources, but most of the articles are from non-mainstream sources.

Mainstream Sources

To be sure, some of my news comes from mainstream sources.  I subscribe to the Republic, Capitol Times and Wall Street Journal and I follow Sonoran Alliance, R Cubed and Political Arizona which often (like espresso pundit) refer to mainstream media stories.  The Drudge Report is a great accumulator site, but almost all of his sources are from the Mainstream.

So what happens when the newspapers go away?  They will be replaced by thousands of original sources who will distribute raw content as well as the spinners, monitors and accumulators who work to provide context to that content. 

The readers will customize their own baskets by signing up for content that will be sent directly to them, and frankly, they will be much better off.  I'm much better informed than I was even a few years ago. 

With source documents being automatically emailed to me, a large network of self interested accumulators keeping me informed about issues, not to mention programs like Google Alerts that scour the web for key words that I've requested, I have no need for someone at a mainstream newspaper to screen information for me. 

Who will write the news when the newspapers are gone?  You will.  I will.  Glenn Hamer, Tom Jenny, Brenda, Diane and Steve Voeller will.  So will Jeff Flake, Harry Mitchell, Laura Devany, Shane Wikfors, David Schweikert and Kyrsten Sinema.

We will all be reading the news as well...in real time, from original sources.  We won't have Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Kevin Willey or John Zidich deciding what we should read or how we should think. 

We've overcome that, and we are much better off. 

 

 

Comments

[unpaintedhuffheinz]

Well said, Espresso Pundit.

[Naum]

Most of those sources you list are heavily reliant upon mainstream "brick and mortar" journalism of the newspapers you decry or the "librule" media you so eagerly castigate. Without the link + added commentary, there's nothing to even discuss.

Unless it's a breaking story like a disaster where participants and witnesses can write their own copy. But still, some "librarian" function has to cull it all together, analyze it for what is real, what is conjecture, and what is being embellished.

And then there is the matter of affairs behind the yellow tape marked "police line - do not cross" (or the inner chambers and/or machinations of how state officials conduct their business). Still, in 2009, often information is only provided to "official" media agents (in fact, here, locally, Arpaio will not release any data that the people have a right to, to what he discriminates as "illegitimate news sources" (i.e., Phoenix New Times, bloggers, etc.…)). Opening up to Greg's Blog and Naum's Blog and Gipper's News Grotto is infeasible, but when the mainstream entities all go belly up, there will be no agent available to collect this information.

[Jay]

>>Now however, you can sign up to get all the agenda information directly from the source.

Oh, yes, by all means - trust the government and businesses to give us what we need. That is the way to an informed electorate.

Raw content has its place but only a fool would take it unquestionably at face value and leave it at that. For us to keep this republic, we need multiple voices and viewpoints. Press releases and partisan bloggers may be a part of that chorus, but God help us if they are the soloists.

[Paul]

Jay, his point is that we all have our own ways of acquiring the news, and if that's from someone who's keyed into local politics and government organizations and practices law like Greg does, then we don't need a journalist telling us what they think the news is when their only "superior" qualification is that they graduated with a journalism degree. This is the age of specialization, and the blogging world is best suited to adapt to that.

[The Klute]

Except, Paul, that we're constantly getting barraged with bad information from the blogosphere, and there's no reprecussions.

"Chewie Shofir" over at Sonoran Alliance recently posted that the City of Phoenix spenmt $35,000,000 in order to promote/service the All-Star Game. The actual figure will not even come close to that, and in fact the $35,000,000 referred to by Chewie was REVENUE for the Valley.

Greg today moved the Salt River Indian Community from East of the 101 to the center of Scottsdale.

The question is (to steal from Alan Moore): Who watches the Watchmen? The answer: No one. The accountablity for the paper is to issue a public correction, the excoriation of the author... There is none of that in blogosphere.

What accountability is there for Chewie? Nothing. Sonoran Alliance (an extensively read blog) still gives that person license to post. No public shaming, no follow up, just a quick Cavuto-ing of the post to cover their butt after being contacted by the Phoenix PIO. Papers are a jumping off point for dialogue - there are watchdogs, commentators, etc. None of that exists.

Bloggers don't even have to acknowledge the truth. How many corrections have been issued by the blogs, even when they're painfully wrong.

Mark my words, the only thing that's going to stop that is a lawsuit for defamation or libel ad hominem, and when someone loses their house because they thought'd it be awesome to make a cheap politcal point by discharging bilge, then we'll see something that counts as journalism.

[Darrow "Duke" Tully]

Not so long ago, I was the MAN, the publisher of The Republic and Gazette, and me and my white guy pals in the Phoenix 40 ruled this town with an iron fist. Not even the losers on the paper's I-team could figure out I was a snake oil salesman and a sociopath. And there were none of these pansy bloggers around to get in my way. Not until that creep county attorney figured out I made up all that fighter pilot Korean war crap and that I was dangerously delusional did my empire crumble. Readership of The Republic has gone downhill ever since. I want those days back when the R&G had ALL the power and I, in my flight jacket and Ray Bans, could instill fear in all you pinkos. Now those were the good old days ...

[.]

"then we'll see something that counts as journalism"

From the blog that is the gold standard for four-letter words, mocking of Sarah Palin's chidrens' names, and various and sundry juvenile garbage.

[Muckraker]

I can't believe you feel like you're getting the news by receiving press releases from local governmenal bodies. It's what they're not telling us that is important, and that's where the MSM could serve us. That said, don't count on getting it from our local Gannett-owned newspaper which has turned ovr the bulk of its news-gathering operation to the ASU journalism school.

[The Klute]

.,

Mind if I use that as a blurb for promotion? Thanks!

[Steve]

I'm afraid all of those wonderful sources of information are going to misspell Sudoku as well. Hey rama.

[Zelph]

Congrats, Klute! You've made the big time.

[Jay]

I KNOW his point, Paul. Thanks for condescending to explain it to me. I actually recognize his point AND understand it - and I reject it utterly. A professional newsgathering corps will always be necessary to guard against corruption. Are the ones we have perfect? Nope. But I trust it more than I trust a blogger who goes off the grid to cram for the bar.

There are elements of society who actually thrive on corruption and see it as the only way to maintain their fiefdoms. In the end, only they are served by the total disintigration of the MSM.

[Marizco]

Interesting,
So "news" to you, Greg, is what is disseminated in press releases. Public information that the State and its lobbyists want you to know.
That's very healthy, those institutions never lie about anything.

[Ron Bellus]

Great comments. But I find it interesting that no one has mentioned C-Span or our local version, Arizona Capitol Television/ Legislative Broadcast Center (Ch. 123 on Cox Cable or at azleg.gov), which provide unedited, unfiltered access to government in action. Watch and make up your own minds without the talking heads or the pundits telling you what was said or done.

[Marizco]

Wow. This giggly Democrat falls right in line with your thinking, Greg. You should be pleased.

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_11822644?source=rss

[A question...]

Greg, can you explain how one can be put on the ACC distribution list? Thanks!

[CJ]

"Hello, is this the governor's office? I'm calling to find out when I can come on down there to pick up the 300 sensitive documents I FOIAed and interview Gov. Brewer for an article."

"Me? Yes, I'm a reporter. I have my own blog, www.thegloriousfutureofjournalism.com. And you should know that if you blow me off, you'll have to answer to my 50 regular readers."

"What's that? She'll meet with me on Aug. 1? 2011? Uh, yeah. OK. No, I understand she's busy these days. It's just... Never mind. I'll pencil in the date."