An article in last week’s Marketing Week caught my attention commenting on the continuing strength and value in old media techniques. The article, entitled Britain’s still got some real journalistic talent outlined the recent coup of investigative journalism in the MP’s expenses scandal, as well as the resounding success of ITV’s production and showing of Britain’s Got Talent. Both of these things were achieved through some long, difficult work on the part of the journalists and/or producers, and both of these things were consumed through traditional media channels whilst being backed up by the internet.
Reading this brought to mind some thoughts I have had recently about the effect that the internet has had on research and investigative journalism. The internet has driven us all to a place where instant gratification is the norm. 24 hour news means that ‘breaking news’ has become almost laughable as channels battle to break something vaguely interesting before anyone else. The blogosphere has become battleground where bloggers struggle over who gets the story out first, who tops Techmeme, and who enjoys the most links. I am not completely condemning this – in any case it is simply the way the world is nowadays, good or bad. But what it demands is that in order to be the first, you have to sacrifice something – and that is often sustained, investigative research.
I always loved (and, to be honest, still dream about) spending my days in the British Library when I was writing my Masters dissertation. I loved waiting for books or journals to be delivered, and then chasing up references or ideas as they came to me while I read. I loved how tactile the whole experience was, the atmosphere of the reading rooms, and that little spark of excitement when you discovered a thread of information that would lead you towards the proving (or disproving) of your hypothesis. I miss doing that with blogging – blogs are very much part of the instant gratification culture. If we all spent as much time researching our blog posts as I did researching for my Masters, the internet would slow to a point of almost stopping! Not ideal.
The question I ask though is, if blogs can’t offer you the quality of research that a story like the MP’s expenses could, what are they good for? For me, the answer is simple – thoughts, opinions, ideas. What blogs represent to me are the spontaneous musings that you get when you discuss something in a group. When you engage in good conversation, no-one ‘researches’ before they answer. They say what they think and feel based on what they already know and what they are finding out from the other people in the group.
To that end, the old media and the new media play very different roles for me. I turn to the London Review of Books (old media) to read researched, considered and erudite reviews of new books. I turn to my favourite book blogs to read people’s instant impressions, ideas and feelings about the same book. I read the article, then I go to the ‘cyber pub’ and talk about it. That way I learn twice as much.
If you remember that blogging is not a replacement for quality journalism, and there will always be an important place for that self same style of journalism, then we can perhaps approach our blogs differently. By all means, seek to be the first one to put your opinion forward, but remember that it is an opinion, so it will be just as valuable if it is second, or fifth, or a hundred and fifth. And in the meantime, take the time to appreciate the work of those ‘old media’ journalists who do spend months over a story. There is very much a place for both of us.
Thanks to Wonderlane for the image
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Tags: Investigative journalism, Journalism, media
