PR Week says the battle to own stories is fair fight. With so many professionals now publishing online, main stream media is having a hard time finding the fresh angle on a story. Bound by more definition on how to approach, write, and publish, main stream media is also less likely to come up with the most playful titles and formats. Barry Hollander, journalism professor at the University of Georgia, said that access has become flat thanks to the Internet.
While access has indeed become flat, I've seen main stream media capitalize on the buzz created online by a story - and publishing just a hair later with the commentary of a journalist, or a well edited piece. The New York Times has done that many times recently. And it is now a well documented fact that journalists read blogs. Will new media re-imagine journalism? I think it will, it already does.
Not owning a story means a lot more work for everyone, not only journalists. I try to stay away from a hot story after it breaks lest I repeat (unknowingly) the commentary of others. When I do publish about a topic, I do some research (at times extensive) to make sure I link and credit others when I'm ready to publish my take on it. Do you do that?
There seem to be a couple of schools of practice with blogs. Some authors research extensively and link, others write mostly from their own perspective. I tend to do both, depending on the post.
If access to the information is flat, there is one kind of access that remains a competitive advantage, that of the insider. As in the person who can gain first hand knowledge of an issue from experiencing it in some form. While in the past, someone writing from such point of view would have been seen as biased, today that opinion is valued - we crave the first person commentary directly from the person.
These days we tend to have pretty tight, and fast, deadlines and sometimes hitting the publish button comes before getting all the information. Then again, that's why when we stick to our knitting - what we know, our experience, and our point of view - we are still providing something valuable. And we always have access to that experience and take.
Should we engage in public relations that way? Less messaging, more human talk and commentary. I mean from organizations and businesses. The human angle seems to have made a come back. In my mind, it never really went away. And now access has really become flat - anyone can write about what's happening in first person. Imagine what will happen when mobile applications really take off. We will be able to witness the stories on the go, never mind writing about them!