Do blogs influence the news and do journalists read blogs?

Journalists don't read blogs is an unlikely comment

Simon Collister (via Three Line Whip)has sumbitted a PR Diploma Dissertation examining whether political bloggers in the UK have an influence on the media agenda of broadsheet newspapers.

He is to publish the full paper shortly but writes of his conclusions:

Using case studies of the Charity Commission investigation into the Smith Institute, the Labour Party auctioning a copy of the Hutton Report signed by Cherie Blair, and Iraqi translators’ asylum status.

His results suggested that

all three case studies displayed some evidence of media agenda-setting. All three cases appeared to act as trigger events

and that

all the case studies influential, high-traffic blogs – or networks of lower-traffic ones – acted as framing devices around the story, pulling together key information and interpreting/analysing issues.

Suprsingly though his research showed that

100% of the journalists interviewed claimed they did not use material from blogs when writing stories, while 50% of journalists said they did not even read blogs.

And on this issue he speculates that

" this could be either the journalists interviewed are not being entirely open in their answers and that blogs play a bigger role in the newsgathering process

Press Gazette launches new aggregator blog

Press Gazette have this morning launched a news blog,the Wire which attempts to aggregate in the words of Dominic Ponsford

a new cross-media service aimed at providing a comprehensive, intelligent aggregation of every story we can find about journalism

Dominic continues

The Wire will provide a highly-searchable index of journalism stories culled from a plethora of sources across the internet and other media

. adding that

Online is where the action is for news, and The Wire is our attempt create a sort of mega-blog which keeps us and our readers on top of all the big stories about journalism all the time - without diverting limited editorial resources away from the print edition.
And it provides us with the material for a handy page of digested news in the magazine which should become essential reading for anyone who needs to keep up with the fast-changing world of journalism.

The thin line between blooging and journalism

Is there a difference or are the lines blurring(thynks to Andy Dickinson for the link)

Scott Carp writing in Publishing 2.0 poses the following question

the more salient questions is whether the blog platform — which, as a web-native CMS, is more powerfully connected the online content ecosystem — will be used by more journalists. And whether more bloggers will start to do what can fairly be considered journalism. Which of course begs the uber-question of what is journalism.

At its most basic, the reporting may at times be little more than value-added blogging: a story in the news, put in context with a quick Nexis search, and deconstructed.

And it is interesting to see some of the comments

Journalists (of the old school) and blogs will always have an uneasy relationship because as a journalist (of the old school) you are trained to answer every question you raise. You are trained to deliver a sealed unit ringing with authority. Blogs are open ended. They beg questions, they seek to engage in conversation.

Perhaps another thought to be added to this,the distinction at the moment is taht journalists get paid and bloggers generally dont

and the downside of blogs

Thanks to Martin Stabe for this gem from the Brisbane Times which tells us that

Blogs have never completely lived up to their early hype. They haven't made many bloggers rich, or ushered in a new era of "citizen journalism", or wrested control of political debates from the mainstream media. But they are gaining political importance, and they are influencing the conduct of foreign and strategic policy.

Well I would agree with that,they certainly havent made me rich or famous but what have they done?

Well according to the Times they

1.

provide unique on-the-ground perspectives that can be critical to understanding a country or a crisis

2.

Blogs can also bring a level of analysis to international events that governments and the media cannot always match.

3.

The technology of blogging has radically reduced the economic and technological entry barriers for this kind of strategic and political analysis

4.

In an age where threats materialise suddenly and warnings are vague and fragmentary, blogs can spread news and analysis instantly, and allow others in the system to build on them, creating a clearer picture.

5.

Blogging is also a highly accountable medium - if you have evidence, the convention is to cite it with a hyperlink. Readers can then check your sources with a single click. And if a blogger gets something wrong, attentive readers can quickly point out errors in the comments section, or on their own blog

For those who want to make sense of the World

The world tonight's Robin Lustig has starting blogging on world affairs

Check out his blog here to give a perspective on world events

According to his editor Alistair Burnett

The blog will focus on global affairs because we felt there was room for a forum to discuss the main trends and events in international affairs which is what The World Tonight does. However, my entries on this blog relate to stories covered in the programme and editorial issues arising from our coverage and your responses to them.
Robin's blog will discuss the issues themselves. Robin says this is where he will share his thoughts on world events and point readers in the direction of interesting comments he's heard or read.

More on Blog conduct

I was interested in seeing how many comments Jonathan Freedland's article on the Guardian's comment is free section had received.

Jonathan's article "The blogosphere risks putting off everyone but point scoring males" likens the internet debate to an out of order public meeting:

It is a question of balancing an "enormous democratic opportunity"


"Whether it's the Baghdad Blogger or the public service workers highlighted in today's Society section, free expression is now just a click away."

Against

Even a brief, light piece can trigger a torrent of abuse, usually directed at the author and rapidly diverted by the commenters to each other. If the topic touches, even indirectly, on race or religion, then you'd better brace yourself. If it's Israel-Palestine, you might need to take the afternoon off.

He continues by saying that journalists have to be able to defend what they have written and ponders the ways that the web can be regulated.One way maybe Neil Levine's idea that gives a rating to comments,the higher the rating,the higher subsequent comments will appear.

Anyway 196 comments to date,the most popular incidently at the moment an article about a Jewish man giving up his passover to show people around Nazi death camps(460)

Terence Blacker writing in the Independent continues the debate in his article The web holds up a mirror to our cruelty

"the internet has not been the joyful free-for-all of information and contact that had once been hoped."

He continues to say that

Far from being an expression of freedom, cyberspace is rapidly becoming synonymous with power and its abuse. It allows various and significant invasions of privacy. The jolly rough-and-tumble of debate between bloggers has turned ugly, with such foul and abusive postings, sometimes with faked-up pornographic pictures, that there have been calls for a code of practice. The very forum which delighted in the lack of rules now seems anxious to introduce them.

Plagarism

Martin Stabe is a little angry with a student at Uclan who lifted a piece that he wrote for Press Gazette ont their blog without any attempt to cross reference.

The piece puts a good light on the Journalism department as it tells that three graduates from last year have successfully completed their training at the Sun.

Unfortunately as Martin says

"Journalism schools need to teach their students that blogs are internet publications like any other. They are public on the internet and can be read by anyone in the world with an internet connection. They are subject to the same media law as any other publication, including libel and fair dealing in copyright."

I suppose that this comes back to the debate about regulation of the blogsphere and whether there should be some code of conduct.

How the newsmedia can use blogs

The Bivings report suggests ways in which a newsmedia can make use of blogs.

It suggests a number of different ways that the medium can work

1. Ask the audience which topics they want to read/listen/view
2. When designing a new product ask for feedback
3. Host public blogs for example neighbourhood views
4. Provide ongoing coverage even when the story does not make it to print/air
5. Foster interacation between journalists and readers
6. Report news about niche interests
7. Request help for the public when covering a story
8. Encourage experts to interact.
9. Get non journalists to report on their area of expertise
10. Provide pre views of up and coming stories
11. Allow journalists to share interests and patterns
12. Share what your reading

Some tips on blogging

Howard Owens writes that every student journalistt should blog

Every student journalist should spend at least six months totally immersed in blogging. Start a blog and try to draw an audience. Do the things that bloggers need to do, read other blogs, create a blog roll, link to other blogs, post frequently on topics relevant to the audience you’re trying to reach (and read those blogs in that category), comment on other blogs. Learn to be a participant. That’s my advice to pro journalists, too: if you want to learn this culture, become a participant in it. It will totally change the way you think about media and online publishing.

http://www.collegemediainnovation.org/blog/2007/01/15/icm-interview-howard-owens/

There has been a great deal of conversation on Megan Taylor's site about this and she has put together some blogging tips from various comments and feedback she has had.The best seem to revolve around interaction with other bloggers in your niche.

Including:

Be the first to write a post about the ‘Top Ten Blogs’ in your niche. The post will rank highly in any general search for blogs in your niche and other bloggers in your niche write about the post and link to it.

Keep track of blogs and leave comments on them. How do you know which blogs to keep track of in the first place? Add the MyBlogLog widget/code to your blog.

Participate in conversations on related blogs. Start conversations on your own blog. Don’t just post about a story and leave it at that, engage your audience.

Why should journalists Blog?

All journalists should blog.

That's the opinion of Chris Cobler, publisher of greeleytrib.com,and featured in Editors Weblog today.

Why?Well Chris explains that

“Blogging helps you better understand your audience.

The hallmark of any blog is the ability for readers to post comments to what you write. By having this regular conversation with readers, you learn what hits and what misses.”

“For newspapers that are rapidly becoming irrelevant to a growing number of people, this is a huge issue. If you write post after post that garners no response, then it ought to be telling you something.”

And if you don't according to Chris

Do you really want to become irrelevant?”