It may be cliche to point out that New Media is going to beat out Old Media in the long-term, but it seems there’s a element of this truism which has not been discussed enough:
The importance of veracity.
Earlier today, the biggest story on TechMeme and beyond was that Twitter had begun testing, at long last, in-stream ads on its website; at least that’s how TechCrunch’s oft-debunked Duncan Riley reported things.
But alas, this story, was like so many that Duncan and other amateur reporters commit to their blogs, was fully erroneous, and Silicon Alley Insider, a publication which tends to fact-check (an antique practice I’ll get to later) sent out a few emails and debunked the report.
While most of us could see this episode as an unfortunate blemish Riley had inflicted on his employer, Blake Robinson (a great reporter himself) pointed out in the comments of SAI’s post that there’s a much broader issue in play here… which is the importance of journalistic standards, especially that of using reliable sources and having a standard for truth.
I’ve had the pleasure of being around bother Silicon Alley Insider and PaidContent reporters as they’ve tried to break stories, and both times they were waiting on “one more source” — something you’d expect to hear from a journalist, not a blogger.
But indeed this seems to be the future of journalism: journalism on the web — with fact-checking, standards, editors, etc; not what we’re seeing out of Duncan and so many others, which is just blogging, and consistently produces material even Jason Blair would feel uncomfortable about.
More on this at a later date.
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9 responses so far ↓
1 allen stern // Apr 15, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I hope you approve of my content :)
2 Barry // Apr 15, 2008 at 12:46 pm
If you’re going to post about the value of editing and fact-checking, please take a moment to check your post for spelling and grammatical errors.
btw - is it Riley or Reilly?
yeesh.
3 Nate Westheimer // Apr 15, 2008 at 12:53 pm
@Allen, of course I do! I just have never been around you while you’ve been stressing over sources, so I couldn’t include you in that list ;-)
@Barry - I don’t claim to be a reporter, but I was pleased to be corrected :-)
4 Of blogs, accuracy and editors - mathewingram.com/work // Apr 15, 2008 at 2:55 pm
[...] Westheimer, a contributor to Silicon Alley Insider, also has a curious blog post in which he laments the state of blogging, which he says doesn’t pay enough attention to accuracy, and he uses Duncan’s post as [...]
5 Of blogs, accuracy and editors - mathewingram.com/media // Apr 15, 2008 at 2:56 pm
[...] Westheimer, a contributor to Silicon Alley Insider, also has a curious blog post in which he laments the state of blogging, which he says doesn’t pay enough attention to accuracy, and he uses Duncan’s post as [...]
6 Peter Kafka // Apr 15, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Not to get all meta (too meta? too late) about this, but there’s difference between making spelling and grammatical errors and getting facts wrong. The thing is, everyone who communicates on the Web, whether they’re pros or amateurs, makes both sets of errors, all the time. What makes it interesting are the ways different pubs respond to and/or handle their mistakes.
Also, it’s Jayson Blair, with a “y”.
7 metarand » Twitter Safe From Ads, Blogging Takes One On The Nose // Apr 15, 2008 at 7:02 pm
[...] more interesting though, is the question this raises around blogging versus old media. I agree with Nate Westheimer that veracity is paramount, but speed is soooo sweet too. Think about it - stories I’ve filed [...]
8 Jeffrey // Apr 17, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Yes, fact checking is very important, especially on the web where its so so easy to just slap up a blog post and report on anything, whether it’s accurate or not.
Also, yes, ads in the twittersteam would be horrible - but it does bring up a good point on how far companies who run social media sites can go with their users to bring in the advertising dollars. Facebook has done it somewhat successfully , and at least they’re constantly trying to figure out the next step…
9 5 Things from the Future // May 8, 2008 at 8:30 am
[...] happens when you take professional writers, make them use the veracity-threshold of old media but act like a blog and play with [...]
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