New Media vs. Old Media

Every once in awhile I find myself watching CSPAN.

I’ve actually been somewhat of a fan for awhile. They show interesting stuff. My personal favorite has to be Prime Minister’s Questions, which is shown Sunday nights. I usually miss it but every once in awhile I’ll remember and click over to see if it’s on. They also show a lot of fascinating interviews with some of the most interesting people of our time. It’s a glimpse into the new and old world of politics and international affairs. Last Sunday night though, showing was a special treat. So special in fact, I would love to see it again in its entirety and need to do some research to see if that’s possible. The week has quickly caught up with me and prevented that however.

What was playing was a special presentation sponsored by the National Journal, YouTube and Google. The debate was on the role of media in the upcoming election. Now, what makes that so special is the obvious change in approach as well as the options of different types of media we not only have today but use. The prominence of bloggers as well as the importance of their impact have put them on the front lines of the action we’re about to see in the coming months. The panel present included prominent members of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ media including Mark Halperin, senior analyst at Time; James Kotecki, writer for The Politico; Kevin Madden, former spokesperson for Mitt Romney; and Katherine Ham, editor for DCExaminer.com (who wore the most hideous and annoying earrings I just have to add).

Now, I did miss a good bit of the first part of the debate but when I came across it the discussion was centered on old media and the emergence of new media and how this has affected both types as well as why has this media come about. Interestingly, the reasons given for this new form of media and why it has caught on so quickly was due to the mistrust people began to have toward traditional media; an argument from Time’s senior analyst, Mark Halperin. Bias became a problem and the tradition of un-biasness that veiled coverage before was slipping. It came to head, noted Halperin, during the Clinton administration. Now, I thought that was quite a breakthrough to hear coming especially from the old media which often fails to admit faults. I would agree though. In fact, I would argue that an early version of the new media was in fact the conservative talk shows that became wildly popular during the Clinton administration. Sorry liberals – you have taken the new media by storm but I think the (ultra-) conservatives got you on this one, at least to the punch first. But its success I claim is largely due to the mistrust that developed and the bias that seemed to seep into the news. These are my extended thoughts and not mentioned in the debate by the way.

This argument, although I agree, has rattled my brain since though. Why have people turned to blatantly biased media in their response to mainstream, traditional, (should be) unbiased media? Unfortunately, the two representatives from the new media seemed to sit on the stage and talk as if poster children, all-too excited to get to their laptops and see how many people have twittered or wrote on their blog that they saw ‘em on tv, and spoke with an attitude that they can do no wrong and have no rules and are going to take over the world (or in fact already have). I would describe them as the annoying kids in class who always have to speak showing both that know everything as well simply love hearing themselves make speeches and now that damn habit is going to fulfill their wet dream of an interview with Obama. Ok, I’ll calm down. But it did upset me that they seemed to have a complete lack of regard to the tradition of journalism. I say this because yes, we need to be open to debate and that’s what I love about the new media – it’s really just a forum for exactly this. But, at the same time we need facts and facts are often skewed in opinion pieces. Therefore, I think there should be some respect to traditional media. This means I am concluding that new media is largely opinion-based, and that’s true. I do believe this.

One of the other more interesting points made was from Romney’s former spokesperson, Kevin Madden (who by the way, appears to be just a younger version of Mitt Romney). But he made the point that media is now consumer-driven. He referred to it as a push- or pull- media economy; that as a consumer-driven media economy, it has opened the door for multiple options. However, this also means that connection to a candidate can be either through their economic policy plan or through ObamaGirl. I see this as a valid point. ObamaGirl is a viral marketing gem for the Obama camp and it plays into the new role of media. But again, it’s not a source of facts.

Halperin raised the point too that old media is catching up to the new. They are starting to play the same game. He compared it now to a race. News is pushed in real-time thanks in large part to new media that now almost all major news sources have blogs and people are reading them instead of waiting to next day’s paper or next weeks issue.

But even though I love the new form of media and believe that it’s the information source of today and the future, I am still waiting for new and old media to better collide. As Halperin pointed out that they are – I still want to see real journalism play a bigger role in media. I love blogs that portray a moderate-voice because they open debate to both sides but at the same time I want better sources with complete unbias. I know they are out there but they are not quite yet the sites people are checking out. I compare a lot of political commentary out there to tabloid journalism. Facts though are what we need. I am also interested into your thoughts on why perhaps people en masse have turned to these strongly opinionated blogs in response to media mistrust? I find it very fascinating. It’s going to be a very interesting few months and I’ll be watching it from the paper, the tv, and the computer…it’s going to be information overload!

[ Note: Here is the link to the video - I look forward to watching it in its entirety again...maybe I'll add some more thoughts! - http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=205935-1]