The ongoing discussion about the quality and timeliness of reporting the Christchurch earthquake in our conventional and new media has raised lots of issues. I have posted about it here, here , here and here.
I want to keep that discussion going because it’s important. Relevant to a wider discussion about the future shape of our media. And there is an important role for government in this.
There’s been arguments between media outlets about who was first to report the earthquake, who has done it better and who has won the ratings war. There’s been criticism of celebrity journalism (if you can call it journalism); of the media stars turning up in the rubble getting down amongst the “peeps”.
Peter Dunne gave these celebrity journos a whack in parliament last week and I think he was right.
All rather tacky really.
There’s been a lot of talk about the role of twitter, facebook and blogs. The immediacy factor of those mediums and the rise of the citizen journalist (and photographer). I heard the story of the guy in Chch who took some photos uploading them to twitter for his son which were then picked up by CNN which then essentially locked out other media outlests from accessing them (without the permission of the original photographer)
And the role of media websites such as Stuff and NZ Herald which have done a reasonable job of updating content, telling real stories and providing some analysis.
Radio and TV have done their best with their current resources and mindsets.
A few observations since…
I think mainstream conventional media knows it has to change but needs to do it faster. Many news outlets are now using twitter to release stories and to follow news sources. But they’re taking a while to get the hang of it.
NBR’s Chris Keall would be one of the better journos I know using twitter. He lives on it, draws much of his material from it and release news stories constantly via twitter. He then engages in discussion abotu them and draws on that discussion and reaction to produce new stories. Cool (@ChrisKeall). He’s not the only one.
TV3′s Patrick Gower has released some big stories via twitter. Clever (@patrickgowernz)
There is an emerging role that social media is playing which is transforming regular media. It’s the immediacy and real time nature of it that’s important. And there’s a actual discussion occuring as well an interaction between people that doesn’t happen with regular media.
However, the accuracy and analysis can leave a bit to be desired and that’s where conventional media by real journalists (those that are left) is important. This piece, admittedly written late last year, talks about these issues and is worth a read. It talks about content, promptness and analysis and how you can’t generally have all three at once in one medium.
Mike O’Donnell wrote this opinion piece in the DomPost yesterday on the web presence around the Chch earthquake. I agree with most of what he says, except perhaps that he didn’t emphasise enough the vital role social media played in people contacting and supporting each other.
But he did say this, which is important:
…the complete absence of an attempt by any of the authorities to harness the huge conversation empowered by the web to create an online community.
Tim Berners-Lee gave the internet a public face when he invented the world wide web in 1990. What made it special was the ability for people to connect, share, question, laugh and cry, in plain sight. That’s why most of the world’s most popular websites – Facebook, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo – are effectively online communities where people hang out, share and help each other out.
On the day of the earthquake, the people of Christchurch had thousands of different experiences, suggestions and concerns. It was an opportunity crying out for a central online repository or chatroom where there voices could be heard, conversations had, questions asked and responded to. But no such mechanism existed.
It’s an opportunity crying out for utilisation, and one that I hope the core agencies are considering.
And for those of you who are interested; here’s a list of NZ media who are on twitter (with their twitter addresses). Helpfully compiled by Bill Bennett, a freelance writer from Auckland (amongst other things). Hope you don’t mind me sharing Bill.
