August 2008 Archives

In the information age, not a single news website features in America's ten most visited websites. Leading the news organizations is CNN.com, ranked 16^th in terms of traffic, followed by Newyorktimes.com at 23 and BBC.co.uk at a distant 43. In fact, CNN.com (placed 16^th) has less traffic than social networking sites, MySpace.com (ranked 3^rd) and facebook.com (ranked 7^th); blogger.com (ranked 12^th) and another blogging portal with image hosting, Photobucket.com (ranked 15^th).

In the book Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky brings to light just how innately social human beings are, and how prone humans are to forming groups and/or categories of people. According to Shirky, an impact of technology is to enable "new kind of group-forming." It is not surprising then that most of the most popular websites in America today, work primarily on user-generated content and social interaction. For instance, MySpace.com is ranked 3^rd most popular. Youtube.com is 4^th and facebook.com is 5^th. Ebay.com (ranked 8^th) and craigslist.org (ranked 11^th), are both sites that work primarily of buyer-seller interaction; auctions and/or bargaining. These two shopping sites are ranked higher than amazon.com (13^th).

But in the news media, it's a little more difficult to analyze the situation. User generated content is indeed popular. When it comes to opinions, on a daily basis, a smaller community website seems much preferred. Blogs find an online community of people that share the same locality, opinions and/or concern.

However, when it comes to major events, such as McCain's announcement of his vice presidential candidate, people will first turn to legacy media like The Washington Post and The New York Times, just to know the raw facts. They will get their information here, and this information will prove to be a building block to forming individualized opinions of the event. These opinions will be expressed on blogs and other such new media which have an active, loyal online audience. Most of the blogs agree, disagree or simply draw upon a mainstream news organization like MSNBC, New York Times or CNN.

As a critical consumer of news, I may not be convinced of a news story development until I see it in the legacy media. It will be unreliable to trust user-generated content. For instance, with the recent warnings of Hurricane Gustav and an ongoing evacuation, the official words will only be provided by legacy media and there would be utter chaos if everyone individually chose to trust the word of a different blog.

Analyzing McCain's choice of a running-mate, it was clear that blogs were generally very clear of their stand, and were far from neutral. For instance, looking at the archives of mudflats.com, a popular blogging site concerning Alaskan politics; every blog entry concerning Senator Palin was strongly in opposition to her. The Huffington Post's headline was published on the main page of the website in a large red font. "2 Top Alaska Newspapers Question Palin's Fitness," followed by the headline of the abovementioned two 'top' papers: "Most People Would Acknowledge...Palin Is Not Ready For The Top Job" and "It's Stunning That Someone With So Little National And International Experience Might Be Heartbeat Away From The Presidency"

Buying in to Shirky's theory of socialization, The Washington Post attempts to serve its print audience with opinions in the form of a discussion. But they do it very differently than the blogs. The Op-Ed page is complemented with what they call: "Plan A." it's an "occasional feature where The Post asks for first impressions on a hot topic."

The "hot topic" they found worthy of this occasional feature is "Assessing Sarah Palin." The topic has contributions from 8 people, ranging from a former Republican speaker of the House to a Senior Advisor to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The paper's stance is not particularly evident. The mainstream press appears to preserve a certain element of neutrality, which may in fact be the primary reason that legacy media are still considered 'credible' and trusted and especially turned back to on major developments.

However, big news like Hurricane Gustav or John McCain's choice of Vice President cannot be generated every day. On the other hand, there is never a shortage of opinions. People like to be heard and the chances of being heard by a common online community are higher in a smaller blog website than in a mainstream site like the newyorktimes.com. This is illustrated in comparing the coverage of Palin's appointment. Mudflats.com, a blog site unranked due to minimal traffic received 659 comments to the story. Washingtonpost.com, a website ranked the 74^th most popular in America, received 833 comments, a mere 174 additional responses to mudflats.com. Evidently, an interactive audience is more loyal than a spectator audience. And on a daily basis, this is where the new media impacts journalism.

You can not find a more appropriate place than the Hollywood Wedding Chapel to interview the opponents of Proposition 8, which is going to appear on the November 2008 ballot in California.

 "Same-sex marriage has been discussed in the news a lot lately." Now there's a statement that can be said every week. Only it's not just in the news, it seems to appear in every realm of life. Popular culture: television, movies and songs. Academics: Try taking any general education class at a University that does not have a reading on Lesbians, Gay, Bi-gender or Transgender (LGBT). In my experience, the issue has been raised in Anthropology, Economics, Sociology, Philosophy and because of the creative mind of one science professor, even Physics.

Before the trip, most of my time was spent in thinking of a truly original question to ask the interviewees. Candy Cox, a spokesperson for Equality Now, California was an easy person to interview; about ten minutes into the interview, she brought out the human side of issues and topics related to same-sex marriage that none of the assigned readings in classes ever did.

One particular interesting topic was the media's portrayal of Lesbian, Homosexual, Gay and Transsexual (LGBT) individuals, and the influence this portrayal has had on society, evidently something she has experienced firsthand for many years.

Speaking on the evolution of the press' obsession with the topic of same-sex marriage Cox said, "I have looked at the stories around the Briggs amendment, in 2000 and stories in 2004, when people (LGBTs) were getting married. And it was true that the reporters went for the most rabid anti-gay people for their quotes and responses. But this time it's not looking like that," she says, "if you look at the coverage in the Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, Sacramento Bee or Santa Monica Paper, you see that they do talk to the other side, that's important to do so, but it's not rabidly anti-gay, and that's what they are doing better this time."

Cox's opinion was immediately echoed by the owner of the Hollywood Chapel, "It has not been a negative approach now," says Rev. Lorelei Starbuck, "it always seems very positive and very pro."

Cox also brought out the amazing stories of the volunteers who were campaigning and spreading the word against Proposition 8. One of the volunteers, she says, quit her job and left her home to come and live in a basement in order to campaign.

These are just two of the many potential stories that came out of a one hour interview. I realized that there is always something worth writing about, that no matter how mundane and threadbare a topic may sound; it can always have an interesting and new angle to it.

I walked in to the Hollywood Chapel wondering what questions I could ask that have not already been asked a hundred times. What really unique and new story could come out of this visit that cannot come out of a brief glance through any academic reading? I left the chapel debating a variety of story ideas with the rest of the group, and all this just by talking to one source. Just imagine the possibilities, after talking to the other side.