You can catch the “New Media and the Future of Journalism” panel on C-SPAN 2 at 3:15 EDT. I will be liveblogging this panel discussion here. Keep refreshing this post for updates.
Don Irvine (@donirvine) will be moderating the panel. Panelists include K. Daniel Glover (@Danny_Glover), Robert Bluey (@RobertBluey), and J.P. Freire (@JPFreire).
Glover is speaking first. He is the online media strategiest for Accuracy in Media. He starts out with an ode to the microphone and then goes on to mention an incident with Al Gore and journalists earlier this month when Gore had tough questions about global warning. Glover tells of Gore being evasive and the reporter’s microphone being cut off. He also mentions another incident at the National Press Club when a phony group reserved a room and pretended to be the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Press Club left the microphone hot even when they knew the Chamber wasn’t involved.
Glover points out that the new media has microphones now too. He pointed out yesterday’s “un-endorsement” of Scozafavva in NY-23 by several conservative bloggers.
Glover points out the Tea Party movement as the best example of the use of new media by conservatives and the media ignoring them until they gained momentum. He also mentions the media attempts to quash the movement failed and that the true story of the Tea Party movement was heard via new media.
Glover also mentions the examples of Van Jones, ACORN, and the NEA. He points out the Left is ahead of the Right but that conservatives have made significant gains.
Rob Bluey, online media director for the Heritage Foundation, is the next speaker from the panel. Bluey says he plans to speak on new media and the future of journalism.
Bluey points out how hard it used to be to get into journalism in the old days. He tells of his own experiences in journalism school at Ithaca College and his dreams of a job in Washington. When he arrived in DC, he discovered that mainstream newspapers didn’t want to hire him because he was a conservative.
He originally worked for CNSNews.com and later for Human Events. Bluey points out that he got to report stories the mainstream media wouldn’t touch.
He points out the rise of bloggers while he worked at those places, including the Dan Rather Memogate scandal. The shift, he said, opened the eyes of people to the impact blogs could have. Bluey then left to work at Heritage.
He saw the impact bloggers could have on public policy debates specifically on the immigration issue. Bluey also talks about other examples of bloggers impacting policy, not just electoral politics.
He then talked about the work of Talking Points Memo on the Alberto Gonzales story from the Left and how the Right saw the potential for new media. Bluey also plugs Watchdog.org.
He also talks about the impact that non-profits can have on the policy debate by harnessing new media. He urges people to stick to the facts in their blogging and new media journalism.
J.P. Freire, associate editor of commentary for the Washington Examiner, is last. Freire talks about Fox News being under attack for offering facts that other networks are “loathe to share.”
Freire also talks about the Tea Party and Town Hall phenomena being covered heavily by Fox News as reasons for the attacks. He also mentions about Glenn Beck pushing the Van Jones story and the fact that Jones was a 9/11 Truther.
He also mentions the attacks on Limbaugh and the Obama administration sending letters to insurance companies trying to stop them from being critical of health care reform.
He talks about fact-checking, muckraking and looking at the data being a tenet of the Examiner and others like Fox News and those in new media doing the same. He mentions that he had a jarring moment when his mother said she had tweeted Bret Baier of Fox to say she had enjoyed his reporting.
Freire then talks about all of the people he came into contact with at the first Tea Parties in DC and the insightful comments on the Examiner website. He mentions that conservatives who normally wouldn’t be active in politics are motivated and fired up now and are speaking out.
Freire talks about the large fact-checking body in place because of citizens becoming active in the process. He points out that the standards might not be the same as traditional journalism but that the standards of traditional journalism aren’t the same as they used to be.
The question and answer session follows. Glover talks about the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan being points where those on the left and the right got involved. Bluey mentions Memogate and mentions when bloggers were invited to a bill-signing by the Bush White House in 2006. He also mentions blogger involvement in the John Roberts and Samuel Alito confirmation hearings. Glover also mentions the online activity after Katrina when the pork-laden transportation bill was passed. He mentions his activity with Porkbusters on Patrol at Eyeblast.tv and videotaping things like the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska. Freire talks about the rise of talk radio and the Internet and things online pushing towards decentralization.
A question on advertising gets Bluey to talk about different advertising models for different types of websites and blogs. Freire talks about all the money that is lost in inefficient newspapers even with the ad revenue. He talks about the lesser expenses for new media. He thinks advertisers will continue to play a role online and he talks about the issues of print vs. online at newspapers. Glover uses the example of dollar coins vs. dollar bvills to discuss the differences in print and online advertising. He says the advertisers don’t necessarily understand or trust online like they do print. Freire gives the example of a friend who thought the ACORN videos were inappropriate because of the hard lives that people who are served by ACORN live. He points out that he asked the friend why she thought the videos should be hidden from the taxpayers who helped fund ACORN.
Other questions well on funding, what politics would have been like 25 years ago with today’s new media, and how to get people involved in new media.
Related posts:
One Response
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
Continuing the Discussion