Tech Trends

Who has more credibility bloggers or traditional media journalists? It isn’t so simple to figure out these days. Mark Cuban just wrote an interesting post on the topic as an insider. Locally, many of our journalists blog passionately as a means of giving a more in depth look at a topic of interest and as a corporate motive to increase viewership. A news organization becomes a stronger “brand” as opposed to an outlet with one medium.

Recently, Randy Turner addressed a dispute regarding Missouri Senator (R) Jack Goodman’s stance on a bill initiating “Castle Doctrine” in Missouri. Throughout the day I’ll be pulling up hours of interviews I’ve conducted with the Senator so I can grab the soundbite. The question I have is, “Why isn’t KY3 doing the same thing?” Why isn’t the news organization posting source materials so we can take quotes in context? Since the probability of spin is high (after all we’re all humans with preconceived notions) shouldn’t publishing source materials be a necessity? If they aren’t I’m going to call the bluff on account every journalist is human.

For the first half of this year I’ve worked for both radio and newspaper publishers. I prefer radio as the newsroom is setup with proper recording equipment. In the event you need to go off the record, you can push pause. Later, you can reference the core materials. Wouldn’t it be great if reporters published these materials? If they aren’t, perhaps, we should ask why. In a dispute, proper corrections could be made. The problem is a free and open society isn’t necessarily the goal of news organizations and concealing data/sources might give a financial advantage.
Personally, I don’t like reporting anything I can’t back up and I don’t think my colleagues should either. In Branson, I pushed the administration to publish the audio files of city meetings. As a result, our regional reporting has had a positive upswing. The availability of the source materials means local journalists know they aren’t the source - they’re only the facilitator - the source is available to all.

Today, I’ll be publishing source materials. Also, a call was placed to the Senator, just to clarify his position. My first interview regarding the topic was made in Feb 2007. Wagers on who wins this one?