homeless_hector

A lyric from “Rock Island,” from “The Music Man.”

All wisdom about changes in media/marketing can be boiled down into metaphors relating to the lyrics from that song, btw…

Parasitic… interesting word. Because a parasite feeds off the life of another creature. Is the mainstream press any more or less parasitic than blogs?

The press reports on things that happen in life, neh? Without actual, first-level events — people doing stuff, politics, crimes, inventions, entertainments, relationships, whatever — there is no press. People want to hear about those things. But there is often no direct “line” into those activities. If I, as an audience member, want to know about what is happening in the “World of XYZ,” I can’t (usually) go and sit in that world. I can’t directly observe the area of my interest. So… the press.

The press. People and organizations whose job it is to observe and report. Fantastic. I’m all for it. They aggregate, on the one hand, the interests of distant (either geographically or opportunistically) audiences, and marry them (on the other hand) with time, talent and resources to provide a valuable service.

But there is no press without 3 things:

1. The “doings” of the various areas of interest.
2. The interest of the various audiences
3. The friction between the two that provides for a system in need of professional services.

Those first two requirements are, frankly, as close to the definition of “parasitic” as it gets. And the third implies a host/symbiont relationship that allows for the parasite to live only because the host can’t get what it needs for itself.

I’m not slamming the press here. Just trying to clarify some terms.

A parasite lives off its hosts resources. The press lives off stories provided by reality, and the inability of audiences to see/judge that reality first-hand.

Blogs (in some, maybe many cases), live directly off aggregating press materials. That is clearly a deeper parasitic level. Sure. It may be a helpful one, if the blogger is simply clarifying, cataloging or commenting on the MSM. But it is one “level” removed from reality.

On the other hand, some bloggers are more direct, experiential writers. They are insiders, like Scobble, or all the gaming bloggers at TerraNova, or Raph Koster, etc. Industry bloggers. They are “cutting out the middle man.”

As the song says:

“Why it

Even now, with the exception of USA Today, most media outlets have only taken baby steps to encourage user interaction. User forums are often kept very far apart from the news. The New York Times could (and should) host a lot of the political discourse in this country, but they choose to keep their most talked about content beyond a pay wall.I would love to talk about Paul Krugman’s columns on the NYT site. But I can’t even access them.

People like to talk. It’s only natural that they found outlets that the mainstream media weren’t willing to provide.

Some more thoughts on my blog:
http://blog.agrawals.org/2007/03/06/journalists-bloggers-and-parasites/

[many] Blogs are “parasitic” on the MSM if the Q is what effect they have on the MSM, or whether they’d be as effective without it.

[many] Blogs are _competitors_ to the MSM, if the Q is how well they reward the reader’s investment of time.

In it I describe the history of my thinking around this idea, starting from when I first came across the mainstream media describing blogs as parasitic, back in April 2006. Since then my metaphor for the relationship between mainstream media and social media has always been of symbiosis, as illustrated in our Future of Media Strategic Framework. There is no better way to understand it.

Lowest common denominator infotainment.

When I started my hyperlocal blog, I focused on not becoming that type of blogger. I wanted to do original reporting when I could. If I had to do a blog style post, I at least wanted my “take” on a journalist’s article to have good analysis and thoughtful commentary.

Today -one year later- I’ve formed relationships with reporters at the local newspapers. Not only have I broken at least a half dozen stories, but I send them tips and they send tips and information back to me.

I don’t think they regard me as a colleague, but I’m probably above the level of parasite. Doing my own original reporting has shown me how difficult the journalism profession can be, and without those journalists, I wouldn’t have much to write about.

Speaking in terms of the direction of information travel, there are many examples of bloggers uncovering or analyzing crucial evidence quickly and more thoroughly than MSM. Just a few that come to mind are Dan Rather/CBS’s Bush memo and the cartoon network’s viral marketing attempts.

As Rod and others have pointed out, we live in a hybrid media environment. MSM and bloggers are hyper aware of each other, and represent polar opposites. But the truth is in practice that each blog introduces varying amounts of mainstream content, from a lot to none at all.

Catering to niche interests is one of the most interesting ways the Internet can be used. Niche interests often run counter to requirements of either broadcast or print. Frequently blogs address interests that simply are simply too small, complex, or risky to be more than a blip to mainstream America. In this case, they aren’t a threat at all to their content, but perhaps to stealing away their audience.

How many times have we heard the sad argument that this medium (radio, television, film, etc.) will kill the other (books, the novel, film, newspapers?)

The point of all journalism, when we get right down to it, is to present a version of reality. Some of us do it for corporate masters, some independently, some in collaboration with what are now being called “Citizen Journalists.” Some of the editing in the background is pristine, some is sloppy or shoddy. So it has always been. The crucial issue is whether we move closer or farther away from the truth.

The test is, in my Not-So-Humble-Opinion, if that question even matters.

Parroting other reporting goes with the game. What original reporting is out there has a price. Both Bloggers and newspapers publishers are now asking themselves what ROI they get for the investment.