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TwitThisI'm beginning to sense an Us vs. Them vibe at the Democratic National Convention here in Denver. It's not between the Obama and Hillary camps. It's not between the Denver residents and tourists. It's not even between the overwhelming police presence and those of us trying to navigate the crowded Mile-High streets. No, this tension is mostly philosophical. It's between 'the Media'...the Old and the New.
A police unit patrols Denver's crowded streets.
Perhaps the tension is more apparent, visceral even, because we're all crammed into one city for a week. Since the last presidential election in 2004, newspapers and news agencies have eliminated staff or shut down. Network news bureaus and magazines have downsized or closed. At the same time, new technologies and those using them have never been more important in an election season. Think of how much has changed in the last four years: Founded in 2005, YouTube didn't exist in the last election. The pervasive site now broadcasts candidate's speeches and attack ads to millions—literally—of viewers. Facebook, My Space, and other social networking sites were hardly the force they are now. More than 70,000 blogs did not coat the Internet. MoveOn.org was not yet a true force for mobilizing voters.
Since Team Obama has been the first political campaign to successfully harness the energies—and probably the votes—of the Millennials using new media, I thought attending a session sponsored by the College Democrats on New Media might prove insightful. After all, I'm a solid Gen-Xer (folks 28-43), a relatively new blogger, and highly curious about what the "kids" are up to these days. It was in this panel I caught the whiff of stress. Well, more like waves.
While many Americans are scrambling to learn the operating procedures of Facebook and Digg, and find out what an RSS feed is, the Millennials have moved way past that. "We haven't had to modify our behavior to fit in online," says Frank Chi, the out-going Communications Director of the College Democrats who works in a political consulting firm in Washington, D.C and moderated the panel. "We've grown up with it."
One myth the group quickly dispelled is the short attention spans of the young. "The average time spent on Facebook is 21 minutes. That's an advertiser's dream," says Chi. Millennials also absorb information differently, often digesting pieces nearly simultaneously. "We're really consuming short chunks and determining what to use later," says Julie Germany, the Director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University.
The wind got stronger. Why doesn't the media recognize our legitimacy and speak our language? they seem to think. "It's frustrating how press secretaries give scoops to reporters they've known for a while. Why don't they give them to progressive media outlets?" says Tracy Russo, of Russo Strategies, an online media strategy firm. "If news broke in blogs, people would have to read blogs."
True, I thought, but scoops that break news are not an everyday occurance. They take a lot of work on the part of the scoop-ee. Not just a matter of eyeballs, it's also a matter of building trust with the people on whom you are reporting. And let's not forget traditional media--radio, television, newspapers--still command many more eyes and ears that few in the blogosphere can.
Is this Us. vs. Them mentality temporary? "The Old Media is shedding its skin and adopting the best tactics of the New," says Rob Anderson, Editor of Campus Progress. "One day, maybe the Old will be doing it better than the New." Danny Shea, the media editor for the Huffington Post: "But the New Media hasn't figured out the business model. People are throwing things on the wall and seeing what sticks." Frank Chi thinks many of the blogs posted today just won't stick. "Ultimately, it's going to be about quality and the people who really have something to say."
Hopefully, the best will stick. And maybe the Old Media will learn to take a few hints from their modern colleagues. This was a theme echoed in the Big Tent, a semi air-conditioned, two-story 8,000 foot nylon structure where credentialed bloggers work and Democratic luminaries come to speak. Arianna Huffington, Creator and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post, threw out a challenge to the media establishment. "The Old Media considers their job to present all sides, not necessarily the truth. But sometimes the truth is clearly on one side." She cited the overwhelming evidence of global warming as a primary example. "Yet the media gives the few critics there are equal time. That's not journalism."
Former U.S. Rep. David Bonior, Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage and Huffington Post co-founder, Arianna Huffington speak under The Big Tent, central command for some 500 bloggers at the Democratic National Convention.
Ms. Huffington's comment raises a bigger question. Are all those writing prolifically in the Blogosphere even in pursuit of quality reporting and opinion? And will the blogs that lack authors willing to do the hard work of sythesizing all the voices speaking survive? Integrity in the written word shouldn't be considered Old School, but the minimal standard.
Like many of my GenXer counterparts, I straddle both Old and New, and not always successfully. With one foot rooted in journalistic practice and another in the Facebook era, I try to embrace what is our reality without losing the principles I wholeheartedly embrace. This isn't an easy job, I know, when time, family commitments, other work pressures, and basic inexperience with new technology threaten your creation. But hopefully, the best of us can learn to adopt pieces of the others' craft and begin to produce stories of a quality, and a reach, that have never been seen before.
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