I was watching the two videos here at Hot Air, one being a clip featuring Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit discussing the Allen macaca incident on CNN's Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz.
At one point, Glenn mentions blogs serving sort of a pre-test function for MSM journalists and cites similar examples wherein music companies test songs on the Internet and make marketing decisions based upon their perceived popularity.
Having observed various news stories make their way from blogs, to talk radio and on up to the MSM in print and on television, I'd have to agree. But I think there's even more to it than that.
From Haditha to fauxtography to political events, and even entertainment and crime news, more and more, one can witness memes, or items begin on blogs, rising up into the MSM-stream over a period of days and even weeks. As one example, certainly individuals who read blogs and also listen to talk radio are now hearing what they've read in the morning being discussed on their drive home from work in the evening. The trend is very much going to expand and will be interesting to watch through the upcoming election season.
Many of the gaffes, talking points, arguments and counter-arguments which are going to result in candidates being elected and even un-elected come November are going to be explored, examined and discussed on the blogs anywhere from a day to two weeks through the Fall.
Blogs are also ahead of even Drudge on more and more items these days. With more and better bloggers consistently emerging, I see the trend as inevitable and irreversible. The MSM will often bring even more to these stories as they expand, so I am not casting their role as simply re-broadcasters. But the better and quicker bloggers become at evaluating the real value of certain events and discussions, clearly the less the MSM is going to have to do before they are ready for a broader audience.
Based on my experience with your blog, I totally agree with this.
Posted by: Florida Patty | Sunday, August 20, 2006 at 05:43 PM
This means that the MSM will be less and less able to act as the gatekeeper in choosing what news to ignore , as well as less able to control the "spin" on stories.
In the end, the MSM will have to concentrate more on gathering all the threads of a story, and providing the overall picture, or they will have no "added value" to contribute at all.
Posted by: Gray One | Sunday, August 20, 2006 at 06:47 PM
Blogs are even occassionally DAYS ahead on a story. I've seen stories go by and then I'll hear about them on the news days later as if they are fresh happenings.
Posted by: Digger | Monday, August 21, 2006 at 11:38 AM
For sure every news outlet has a gaggle of geeks who do nothing all day and all night but read the blogs. I've seen them visiting in the sitemeter on another blog.
The best, however, is that now the MSM knows they are being watched not just for news but for news that is skewed.
1984 keeps coming true.... over and over again. "Room101@Blogs.net". Or 'Fahrenheit32@ WWW.net'. Freeze that thought.
Posted by: Phoenix | Monday, August 21, 2006 at 01:00 PM
Here's a suggestion:How about no more blogging about the value of blogging? You're sounding more than a little defensive today.
Blogs are not about news, anyway. They are about opinion and spin and debate. That is NOT "news."
Posted by: jamie | Monday, August 21, 2006 at 10:13 PM
Cat-blogger, are you, Jamie?
Posted by: Phoenix | Monday, August 21, 2006 at 10:46 PM