A new study released by researchers at Cornell puts a bit of a damper on the theory that the almighty bloggers are kicking dirt in the faces of old media as they rapidly break news. Rather, according to this research, "traditional media" scoop bloggers by an average of 2.5 hours.
To come to these results, the study relied on phrase-finding algorithms to track repeated phrases on 1.6 million mainstream media sites and blogs during the last three months of the 2008 presidential election. The researchers tracked the frequency of various phrases in 90 million blogs and news stories and found that "lipstick on a pig" was the most cited meme.
As demonstrated by the lag time between phrase popularity in the mainstream media and in the blogosphere, the study purports to show that -- for the most part -- phrases, ideas, and memes tend to originate and gain attention via traditional news and then trickle to the blogs.
One thing this study does is dampen the hype around the power of the blog. Defending their trade, bloggers typically argue that mainstream publications get their stories from them and back that claim up with the occasional newspaper quote demonstrating as much. But this study suggests that isn't the norm. It does happen, but only 3.5 percent of the time. (And, unfortunately, sometimes when it does happen, we end up with situations where the media are furthering a false rumor that started in the blogosphere.)
Further, the study also should ease the tensions of journalists who fear their jobs are being usurped by fast-typing bloggers. There's still something to be said for traditional journalism when, even with their editors and concern for grammar, mainstream media still scoop the blogosphere most of the time.
That said, however, this study can hardly be doctrine. Our idea of news and a news cycle is regularly changing, and fast, because of the Web. Though our nightmares of the 2008 presidential election may not have yet faded, in digital time that was quite long ago.
The study also does not take into consideration the role of tools like Twitter, which we know is often used by non-news-people to break big stories.
Further, the study characterizes breaking news by popular phrases, also known as sound bites. Therefore, if a huge news story was spread across the mainstream media and blogosphere, it wasn't evaluated in this survey unless it was characterized by a short phrase, like, say, "No way, no how, no McCain" -- the second most picked-up phrase, according to researchers.
In that sense, the results are a bit suspect. Not all breaking news can be characterized by a catchy one-liner. So while this survey does shake up the idea that bloggers are moving in as traditional media are getting moved out, the only takeaway we can be sure of is that, when it comes to sound bites, traditional media still hold the cards over bloggers.
The mainstream media is too often in a rush to publish as you stated in your november post. It is really self engraciating to say that too often heard mantra of "we should have perhaps taken more time to substantiate the story before running with it, or reporting it as fact or even credible." Why is it so good to be first, even if you're dead wrong?
The mantra rolls on. Would it actually be entertaining to watch mainstream journalism if they led a headline story with, "This just in from an unnamed, not vetted source. Frankly, we are not even sure who the source of this information actually is, or what their motivation would be for reporting this information at all, or their opinion on these facts as they are represented here."
I really think I could watch something like that more easily because of the bizarre twist it would represent.
How often do we see mainstreamers grabbing a tweet out of the internet to back their point of view. So much of the context of the actual point may be missed.
No need to check references has been cited in the past couple of years, why start now?
I'm not exactly shocked that big corporations get the drop on random scattered news blogs. What does surprise me a little bit, is the fact that, occasionally, the big news organizations do actually get their scoops from the blogs.
Naturally, big newspapers have more resources than blogs, as was already stated. But if blogs get the scoop even once over a normal paper, then maybe the future is brighter for blogs than I had originally thought.
So I hope this put to rest the needless rant by mainstream media journalist about 'beta' journalism. Everyone know pretty well that the blogosphere is feeding on what traditional media has to offer but what makes the blogosphere so unique now is the online communities that are been built around those blogs. People want to be around communites and to share their opinions and views with others. Most people don't go to blogs to read some over the top braeking news but rather to participate in the ensuing discussions.
Most of the time i spend reading comments on various blog post so as to see what traction a particular story is having.
...that No Way, No How, No McCain during the campaign! Hmm. Must have been reading too many blogs. [And, while I voted for the other guy, it's kinda strange that the two most-searched phrases are linked to pro-Democrat sentiment.]
At first, I was relieved to read this post, Nicole; yay, score one for the Post and Times and Register and Trib and Sentinel and Times-Picayune! But then I thought, well, shoot: MSM might scoop blogs more often than the other way around, but how will alleged proof of this this stem the hemorrhaging of cash and talent from newspapers? Of course it won't. So here we are, with scoop-y papers in crisis, and day-late, dollar-short blogs siphoning away readers. What's the average consumer, who wants her news both breaking AND accurate, to do?
The fact that traditional media 99% of the time will have access to a greater amount of resources on average than your average blogger. For example, my political opinion blog is at the mercy at what traditional media covers, plus what I can find on the internet and on satellite radio. Also, I tend to wait a little while before even talking about anything so I'm not running with the wrong set of facts.
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Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Times posted a story entitled "Blogger, beware: Postings can lead to lawsuits," discussing the growth of lawsuits in the era where everyone is a publisher. The article points to some recent cases where bloggers wrote some racy things -- like the blogger who said that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" -- and were taken to court.
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We do love our social networking, but, according to computer scientist Jaron Lanier, we may be diminishing ourselves when we join the hive. “May be? Ha!” says Mr. Cramer.
Marketers want to sell you stuff, and they need your help. It's crazy, it's crass, it's fun for the whole family! It's the art form of the new millenium!
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