28 JANUARY SUBMITTED DRAFT
Chapter 10:
The Changing Landscape of the Mass Media
Rock-Bottom Essentials:
Most media organizations produce news in a variety of formats
“Convergence” has blurred the distinction between the traditional categories of mass
media including print, broadcast news, and online sources
Audiences are moving toward information on demand, seeking media platforms and
outlets that can tell them what they want to know when they want to know it
Aggregators compile news and deliver it in what some view as a more user-friendly
format
Electronic media approaches vary, including: podcasting (which some see as a
reinvention of radio); blogs (which can facilitate public discussion and interaction); wikis
(a form of citizen journalism); RSS (feeds that alert users to new material posted to their
favorite blogs, news websites or other Internet sources); and social networks (such as
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter)
Traditional media, though declining in some areas and shifting in others, remains a
central outlet (for now)
By the Numbers:
There are some one trillion unique URLS in Google’s Index
Approximately two billion Google Searches daily
The Online News Association, representing professional digital journalists, has more than
1,700 professional members
On average, it takes 20 on-line readers to generate the ad revenue of one print reader
Number of people globally who read blogs is 346 million
For Further Reading:
THE MISSOURI GROUP, TELLING THE STORY:
ONLINE MEDIA (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007)
THE CONVERGENCE OF PRINT, BROADCAST AND
JANET KOLODZY, CONVERGENCE JOURNALISM: WRITING AND REPORTING ACROSS THE NEWS MEDIA
(Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006)
DEBORA HALPERN WENGER & DEBORAH POTTER, ADVANCING THE STORY: BROADCAST JOURNALISM
IN A MULTIMEDIA WORLD (Congressional Quarterly Publishing, 2008)
Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media 2008,
An Annual Report on American Journalism, http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2008/.
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 2 of 34
Chapter 10:
I.
The Changing Landscape of the Mass Media
Introduction
Modern mass media consumption habits are changing—and fast!1 Today,
environmental law and policy advocates must appreciate the changing landscape
of mass media to successfully harness its power.2 As the Pew Research Center for
People and the Press explained in 2008, “[f]or more than a decade, the audiences
for most traditional news sources have steadily declined, as the number of people
getting news online has surged. However, today it is not a choice between
traditional sources and the Internet for the core elements of today’s news
audiences. A sizable minority of Americans find themselves at the intersection of
these two long-standing trends in news consumption.”3
To get a sense of how this evolution is impacting environmental coverage, it is
interesting to review a 2007 “top 10” source list for environmental news compiled
by an Internet-based environmental expert.4 That list began with six sources that
1
At the end of the 2008 election season, the Pew Research Center for People and the Press
reported a tripling of the use of the Internet for tracking election news in just four years (one
election cycle). Pew Research Center for People and the Press, Internet Now Major Source of
Campaign News—Continuing Partisan Divide in Cable TV News Audience (Oct. 31, 2008) (”percent
who say they get most of their campaign news from the internet has tripled since October 2004
(from 10% then to 33% now).”) See also Adam Singer, 49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 and
Internet Stats, THEFUTUREBUZZ (Jan. 12, 2009), http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/12/socialmedia-web-20-internet-numbers-stats/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009) (“As our digital and physical
lives blur further, the internet has become the information hub where people spend a majority of
their time learning, playing and communicating with others globally. Sometimes it is easy to lose
sight of just how staggering the numbers are of people collaborating, researching, and interacting
on the web. I thought it might be fun to take a step back and look at some interesting/amazing
social media, Web 2.0, crowdsourcing and internet statistics. I tried to find stats that are the
most up-to-date as possible at the time of publishing this post.“).
2
Henry Jenkins, an expert on the convergence culture paradigm and Director of the
Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has identified
convergence as “the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between
multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences.” HENRY JENKINS,
CONVERGENCE CULTURE: WHERE OLD AND NEW MEDIA COLLIDE 2 (NYU Press, 2006).
Pew Center for People and the Press, Key News Audiences Now Blend Online and Traditional
Sources—Audience Segments in a Changing News Environment (Aug. 17, 2008), http://peoplepress.org/report/444/news-media (last visited Dec. 11, 2008). See also American Press Institute,
Seventy Percent of Media Consumers Use Multiple Forms of Media at the Same Time, according to
a
study
for
The
Media
Center
at
API
(Mar.
24,
2004),
3
http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/pages/apinews/api_news_releases/seventy_percent_of_me
dia_consu/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
4
Larry
West,
Top
10
Environmental
News
Sources,
July
31,
2007,
http://environment.about.com/b/2007/07/31/top-10-environmental-news-sources.htm (last visited
Dec. 11, 2008).
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 3 of 34
are available either simultaneously or exclusively on-line (including the first, which
is only available on the Internet): Grist Magazine,5 E/The Environmental
Magazine,6 Environmental News Network,7 Environmental Health News,8 People &
the Planet,9 and Earth Policy Institute.10 It is not until the seventh pick that U.S.
newspapers are listed (including hometown papers as well as The New York
Times,11 The Washington Post,12 and the Los Angeles Times13). It also lists as
numbers eight and nine the generic categories of “International News Sources”
and “News Aggregators” (including Google News14 and Yahoo News15). The expert
closes the list with Government Agencies, but notes that one should always “take
agency news with a grain of salt, of course. Besides protecting the environment,
these agencies also provide public relations for the current administration.”16 To
add to the focus on new media, in this day and age government agencies provide
most of their information in digital format.17
“Best of” lists such as the one just described will, of course, vary in content.
Yet despite likely minor disagreement as to which sources are actually tops in
terms of the environment, it is likely that any “top” environmental news sources
in this day and age will include a substantial number of Internet-based resource
options. Even the iconic Pulitzer organization has expanded its awards to include
on-line only news.18
5
See www.grist.org/news/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
6
See http://www.emagazine.com/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
7
See http://www.enn.com/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
8
See http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
9
See http://www.peopleandplanet.net/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
10
See http://www.earth-policy.org/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
11
See http://www.nytimes.com/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
12
See http://www.washingtonpost.com/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
13
See http://www.latimes.com/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
14
See http://news.google.com/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
15
See http://news.yahoo.com/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
Larry
West,
Top 10 Environmental News Sources, July 31, 2007,
http://environment.about.com/b/2007/07/31/top-10-environmental-news-sources.htm (last visited
Dec. 11, 2008).
16
17
See
See generally E-Gov, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
also The Center for Democracy and Technology, E-Government Handbook,
http://www.cdt.org/egov/handbook/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
18
The Pulitzer Prizes, Press Release, Prizes broadened to include online-only publications
primarily devoted to original news reporting (2009), http://www.pulitzer.org/new_eligibility_rules
(last visited Dec. 28, 2008).
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 4 of 34
News outlets are thus evolving. Platforms that offer news overlap and
connect. As the Pew Center scholars noted, “[t]here is no single or finished news
product anymore . . . and [a] news organization and a news Web site are no
longer final destinations.”19 In short, as the first decade of the twenty-first century
draws to a close, people expect more information, faster, and from more and
combined sources.
In light of multi-faceted platforms and fast-paced change in the world of
media coverage, environmental advocates must understand the nature of existing
news outlets, and how such outlets might evolve. To help readers gain such
understanding, we have organized this chapter into four parts. The first part
discusses media “convergence” and how news coverage and transmission have
transformed in recent decades. We then turn to how technological advances
make modern news much more “audience-centric.” We then include a brief
section on how the world of news might continue to evolve. We close the chapter
with some tips for managing this new and evolving media landscape.
II.
Convergence 101
Over the past few years, distinctions between the traditional categories of
mass media—including print and broadcast news—have blurred.20 With the
proliferation of the Internet, numerous media organizations produce news in a
variety of platforms.21 While this is impacting mainstream media, it is also
happening in the trade press. For example, the subscription to the American Bar
Association’s (ABA’s) Journal that accompanies an ABA membership can be
supplemented by coverage of legal issues on ABAJournal.com.22 But that’s not all!
Lawyers can also receive ABA news via email, an RSS or Twitter feed, a widget,
and even join their social networking site on Facebook.23 The term used to
describe this latest phenomenon of cross-media collaboration is “convergence.”24
Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media 2008, An
Report
on
American
Journalism,
Executive
Summary
at
2,
http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2008/chapter%20pdfs/PEJ2008-Overview.pdf?cat=9&media=1.
19
Annual
Sonya Forte Duhé et al., Convergence in North American TV Newsrooms: A Nationwide
Look, 10 CONVERGENCE: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH INTO NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES 81
20
(2004).
21
Id.
22
ABA Journal, http://abajournal.com/ (last visited Jan. 7, 2009).
23
Id.
The scholarly journal CONVERGENCE: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH INTO NEW MEDIA
TECHNOLOGIES refers to its mission (since 1995) as addressing “the creative, social, political and
pedagogical issues raised by the advent of new media technologies and includes the topics of
Video games * Cable and telecomms * Mobile media/content * Internet studies * Digital/new
media art * Digital photography * VR * Control and censorship of the media *
Copyright/intellectual property * New media policy * New media industries/institutions * New
media history * New media in cross-cultural/international contexts * New media products * Digital
24
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 5 of 34
a. What is Convergence?
Imagine a 35 year old newspaper reporter whose experience includes more
than a decade at newspapers. The reporter has never spent a day working in
television news, but in minutes, s/he is about to “go live.”25 In other words, the
newspaper reporter’s job has changed, so it is no longer just covering news for
the newspaper, but now may include reporting on television and/or radio, and
perhaps turning the results into a multi-media story for the news outlet’s
website.26 It could include a Twitter post and a tag on a social media site.27
Convergence is happening across the country: from Los Angeles, California, to
Shreveport, Louisiana, to Charlotte, North Carolina, where platforms from
newspapers to television and radio stations and on-line partners are working
together to develop news stories.28 The relationships can range from cooperating
on breaking news to sharing story ideas or newscast rundowns to working
together on major investigations.29 Sometimes these media outlets are owned by
the same company, sometimes not.30 Convergence “is about flexibility.”31
TV * DVD * Digital music—recording, production, distribution, file formats/file sharing * Cinema *
Gender
and
technology.”
See
http://www.sagepub.com/journalsProdDesc.nav?prodId=Journal201774 (last visited Dec. 12,
2008). See also The Convergence Newsletter, http://convergencenl.blogspot.com/ (last visited
Dec. 29, 2008).
25
Joe Strupp, Three Point Play, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER 23 (Aug. 21, 2000).
26
Duhé et al., Convergence in North American TV Newsrooms: A Nationwide Look , supra note
20.
See infra Part.III. See also Katie King, Journalism as Conversation, 62 NEIMAN REPORTS 11
(Winter 2008), available at http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100670 (That
author wrote “[w]e don’t know what the impact will be of this flood of free, ubiquitous, easy-touse new digital communication, content creation, and publishing tools that relate to journalism.
‘What tools?’ we might ask. Well, the list changes so quickly that it will require updating in the
time between when I write this article and when it is published.”).
27
See The Media Center at the American Press Institute, Convergence Tracker Search Page ,
http://www.mediacenter.org/convergencetracker/search/ (last visited Dec. 14, 2008). On
December 14, 2008, the site listed a total of 107 “Convergence Relationships.” Id.
28
See
ENCYCLOPEDIA
BRITTANICA
ONLINE,
Media
Convergence,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1425043/media-convergence (last visited Dec. 14,
2008) (“phenomenon involving the interlocking of computing and information technology
companies, telecommunications networks, and content providers from the publishing worlds of
newspapers, magazines, music, radio, television, films, and entertainment software. Media
convergence brings together the ‘three Cs’—computing, communications, and content.”).
29
30
THE MISSOURI GROUP, TELLING THE STORY: THE CONVERGENCE OF PRINT, BROADCAST AND ONLINE
MEDIA (Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2007).
31
JANET KOLODZY, CONVERGENCE JOURNALISM: WRITING AND REPORTING ACROSS THE NEWS MEDIA viii
(Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006) (Preface: Why a Textbook on Convergence in
Journalism?).
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 6 of 34
One of the first studied convergent efforts32 happened in Tampa, Florida,
where the newspaper, The Tampa Tribune,33 the NBC television news affiliate,
WFLA TV,34 and Tampa Bay Online (TBO.com),35 share a website and a
$40 million36 facility. The first floor is made up of television studio space, the
second includes TV and online newsrooms, and the third floor houses a
newspaper newsroom where Tribune reporters can give reports for the television
newscast.37 Dozens more convergence efforts have followed.38
Why is convergence happening? In the twenty-first century, a wide range of
news outlets, news operations, and venues provide information about the rapidly
changing world.39 Cable television has opened hundreds of channels for news,
entertainment, and information, and the Internet provides many thousands of
sites.40 Yet audiences are becoming fragmented while news media ownership is
becoming more concentrated.41 At the same time, the audience is becoming more
involved in all aspects of the news.42
In short, as one scholar has aptly explained, “[d]aily newspapers see a decline
in readers, as well as a decline in advertising. The nightly network news sees its
viewership decline, as the age of its audience rises. Journalism itself is being
See, e.g., THE MISSOURI GROUP, TELLING THE STORY: THE CONVERGENCE OF PRINT, BROADCAST AND
ONLINE MEDIA, supra note 30, at 22-23.
32
33
See http://www.tampatrib.com/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
34
See http://www.wfla.com/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
35
See http://www.tbo.com/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
See THE MISSOURI GROUP, TELLING THE STORY: THE CONVERGENCE OF PRINT, BROADCAST AND ONLINE
MEDIA, supra note 30, at 22-23.
36
Id. at 23. Like other media outlets in 2008, this convergent effort has faced economic
downturns in recent years, and offered buyouts to half its staff in April 2008. Nat’l Press
Photographers Ass’n, Hundreds of Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV Staff Offered Buyouts,
http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2008/04/tampa.html (last visited Dec. 30, 2008).
37
Laura K. Smith et al., Convergence concerns in local television: conflicting views from the
newsroom, J. BROADCASTING & ELECTRONIC MEDIA (Dec. 2007). Case studies of several convergence
efforts
can
be
found
at
The
Media
Center,
U.S.
Convergence
Tracker,
38
http://www.mediacenter.org/convergencetracker/ (last visited Dec. 30, 2008) (Topeka CapitalJournal, LJWorld.com and Florida Today).
39
JANET KOLODZY, CONVERGENCE JOURNALISM: WRITING AND REPORTING ACROSS THE NEWS MEDIA 3
(Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006) (Chapter One: Why Convergence? It’s the Consumer,
Stupid). See also Convergence Tracker, http://www.mediacenter.org/convergencetracker/ (last
visited Dec. 30, 2008).
40
Id.
Id.;
see
also
Center
for
Public
Integrity,
Media
Tracker,
http://projects.publicintegrity.org/telecom/?gclid=CJijz6vS5pcCFQpgswodODlsDA (last visited Dec.
14, 2008).
41
42
See infra Part.III.
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 7 of 34
redefined. Anyone with a website and information can have access on a Web log
(blog) to an audience greater than many daily newspapers or monthly
magazines.”43 Bloggers are in fact challenging the traditional media’s role as
gatekeepers of news and information.44 As one blogger has remarked, it is no
longer constructive “to focus on drawing distinctions between ‘blogging’ and
‘journalism,’” 45 but suggests “seeing a blog as a platform to evolve the practice of
journalism . . .”46
Though convergence as a concept is here to stay, how things will ultimately
play out in the new world of media is unclear. In the convergent media universe,
various modes and platforms of communication and information are continually
reforming. This means that journalists, environmental advocates, and lawyers
must be ready to adapt to the ever-changing demands of technologies.
b. The Media’s Web Presence
As discussed in Chapter 1, in the late 90s, just 1 in 50 Americans got the news
with some regularity from the Internet.47 The numbers have exploded
exponentially in this century. By 2006, nearly 1 in 3 Americans regularly got news
online.48 In 2007, “more than 58 million U.S. Web users visited newspaper web
sites.”49 In 2008, online readership for newspapers continued to grow.50 As 2008
drew to a close, the Internet surpassed newspapers as a preferred news source
for the first time.51 Virtually all top newspaper websites experienced increased
43
KOLODZY, supra note 39, at 3.
44
Id.
Scott Karp, Can Blogs Do Journalism?, PUBLISHING 2.0 (Dec. 17,
http://publishing2.com/2007/12/17/can-blogs-do-journalism/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
45
46
2007),
Id.
47
DEBORA HALPERN WENGER & DEBORAH POTTER, ADVANCING THE STORY: BROADCAST JOURNALISM IN A
MULTIMEDIA WORLD 167 (Congressional Quarterly Publishing, 2008); see also generally Chapter 7,
Writing for the Web).
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, News Release, Maturing Internet
news Audience—Broader than Deep Online Papers Modestly boost newspaper Readership : Pew
Research Center Biennial News Consumption Survey 2 (July 30, 2006), http://people48
press.org/reports/pdf/282.pdf (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
49
Id.
Wendy Davis, Just an Online Minute…Good News and Bad for Online Papers, Online Media,
Marketing
&
Advertising
Conference
&
Expo,
Apr.
24,
2007,
https://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=59263 (last
visited Dec. 29, 2008).
50
Pew Center for People and the Press, Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Source (Dec.
23, 2008), http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1066/internet-overtakes-newspapers-as-news-source.
(“The internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now
surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news.
Currently, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the
51
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 8 of 34
traffic in 2008, some by orders of magnitude.52 For the consumer who wants news
and information instantaneously,53 the Internet provides such. For the media
outlet, the Internet brings infinite space.
Websites for national newspapers like The New York Times 54 receive huge
numbers of hits daily.55 Online newspaper readership is growing each year.56 The
Washington Post website lists multiple “Ways You Can Get Us,” including RSS,57
Newsletters, Mobile, Podcasts, and Widgets.58 On-line experts have created
awards for “Best Newspaper Websites.”59 There even are websites that aggregate
internet, up from just 24% in September 2007. For the first time in a Pew survey, more people
say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%).”).
52
Jennifer Saba, Big Gains Among Top 30 Newspaper Web Sites, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER (Dec. 23,
2008), http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003924439
(last visited Dec. 23, 2008) (“There were big year-over-year gains to be had among several of the top 30
newspaper Web sites for November. The Detroit News soared 232% to 1.9 million uniques in November
compared to the same period a year ago, according to the latest data from Nielsen Online. The Star Tribune
in Minneapolis: up 265% to 3.5 million uniques. Politico spiked 203% to 4.1 million. In Los Angeles, the LAT
was up 143% in November to 11.1 million uniques landing the site in the No. 2 position, with just slightly
more audience than WashingtonPost.com.”).
Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media 2008: An Annual Report
American
Journalism,
available
at
http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2008/narrative_overview_audience.php?cat=3&media=1
(last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
53
on
54
See http://www.nytimes.com/ (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
55
See, e.g., Newspapers.com, http://www.newspapers.com/ (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
Newspaper Ass’n of America, Press Release, ONLINE NEWSPAPER VIEWERSHIP REACHES
RECORD IN 2007: Unique Audience for Newspaper Web Sites Grows Six Percent in 2007; Nine
Percent Increase in Fourth Quarter Adds to Banner Year , (Jan. 24, 2008),
56
http://www.naa.org/PressCenter/SearchPressReleases/2008/Online-Newspaper-Viewership.aspx
(last visited Dec. 29, 2008) ("Average monthly unique audience figures for newspaper Web sites
grew by more than 3.6 million in 2007, a record year for the industry and an increase of more
than six percent over 2006 numbers. Monthly unique visitors to newspaper Web sites averaged
62.8 million in last year’s fourth quarter, a record number in itself and the largest in any quarter
since NAA began tracking online usage in January 2004. According to the data, which is part of a
new report by Nielsen Online for NAA that takes into account home and work Internet usage,
unique visitors in the fourth quarter represented a nine percent increase over the same period a
year ago (57.6 million).”).
57
See infra note168- 177 and accompanying text.
58
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
59
See
Web
Marketing
Ass’n,
Best
Newspaper
Websites,
http://www.webaward.org/winners_detail.asp?yr=all&award_level=best&category=Newspaper
(last visited Dec. 30, 2008).
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 9 of 34
thousands of newspapers and other sources for one-stop-shopping.60
Environmental trade press likewise has a significant web presence.61
Similarly, from the networks to local television, accompanying websites have
become the norm. Traditional networks like ABC rely on their websites for
breaking stories.62 Cable news networks operating 24 hours depend on their
websites for more in-depth and multi-media coverage.63 Local stations, such as
WCCO TV64 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, have websites that include everything from
the day’s news to streaming video to blogs65 and podcasts.66 Network and local
websites also provide instant access to weather and traffic.67 News organizations
all provide e-mail addresses and other means for audience commentary.68
For radio news, the new landscape picture has changed too. Minnesota Public
Radio69 announced in 2003 that ”[a]ll of our reporters now carry digital
cameras…We want pictures, slide shows, links to what we put on the air. We
want additional web resources’ links.”70 National Public Radio (NPR)71 is even more
60
See, e.g., Newspapers.com, http://www.newspapers.com/ (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
See, e.g., Endangered Species & Wetlands Report, http://www.eswr.com/ (last visited Dec.
29, 2008), GREENWIRE, http://www.eenews.net/gw/ (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
61
62
See, e.g., ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/ (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
63
See, e.g., CNN News, www.cnn.com (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
64
See http://wcco.com/ (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
65
The word “Blogs” comes from “Web logs.” Rebecca's Pocket, weblogs: a history and
perspective (7 Sept. 2000), http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html (last visited
Dec. 29, 2008). In the world of journalism, blogs may be included on a media outlet’s Website to
facilitate public discussion and interaction. See Jay Rosen, The Best Blogging Newspapers in the
U.S. (Mar. 1, 2006), http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/blueplate/issue1/best_nwsps/ (last visited
Dec. 29, 2008). For an example of multiple blogs hosted by one media outlet (National Public
Radio), see http://www.npr.org/blogs/ (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
66
Podcasting is defined by PC Magazine as “[a]n audio broadcast that has been converted to
an MP3 file or other audio file format for playback in a digital music player. Although many
podcasts are played in a regular computer, the original idea was to listen on a portable device;
hence, the ‘pod’ name from ‘iPod.’ Although podcasts are mostly verbal, they may contain music,
images
and
video.”
PCMag.Com,
Definition
of:
podcast,
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=podcast&i=49433,00.asp (last visited Dec.
29. 2008). Some refer to podcasting as the reinvention of radio. See THE MISSOURI GROUP, TELLING
THE STORY: THE CONVERGENCE OF PRINT, BROADCAST AND ONLINE MEDIA, supra note 30, at 18. The host
or author of the podcast is often called podcaster. Id.
67
See http://wcco.com/ (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
See KOLODZY, CONVERGENCE JOURNALISM: WRITING AND REPORTING ACROSS THE NEWS MEDIA, supra
note 39, at 72.
68
69
See http://minnesota.publicradio.org/ (last visited Dec. 24, 2008).
Al
Tompkins,
Minnesota Public Radio Gets Visual (Jan. 14,
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=17174 (last visited Dec. 24, 2008).
70
71
Nat’l Public Radio, http://www.npr.org/ (last visited Dec. 24, 2008).
2003),
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 10 of 34
sophisticated. NPR’s Website72 is filled with everything from audio to pictures,
blogs,73 and even services to download news and information to mobile devices
such as iPhones and Blackberries.74 Even for-profit news stations, such as WTOP
in Washington, DC, have robust websites where visitors can listen live, connect to
in-depth articles, watch videos, and interact through blogs.75
Some websites will compile and distill news from a variety of media sources in
a process known as aggregation.76 For example, the website Newser claims it
allows readers to “read less, know more” through its aggregations, where “a team
of editors and writers culls the most important stories from hundreds of U.S. and
international sources and reduces them to a headline, picture, and two
paragraphs.”77 Another approach is taken by Newsy, which notes that “[n]ews
sources are abundant yet redundant”78 and thus combines traditional and less
used multi-media sources to provide “a multiperspective online video news site
that monitors, synthesizes and presents the world's news coverage.”79 Sites like
Yahoo News or Google News80 aggregate varied sources and allow viewers to
personalize their source and topic choices.81 Sites like Environmental Health
72
Available at http://www.npr.org/ (last visited July 24, 2008).
73
See http://www.npr.org/blogs/ (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
74
See http://www.npr.org/services/mobile.html (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
75
WTOP.com, http://www.wtopnews.com/ (last visited Dec. 24, 2008).
76
One popular website lists dozens of news aggregators:
http://www.newsonfeeds.com/faq/aggregators (last visited Dec. 12, 2008).
News
On
Feeds,
See http://www.newser.com/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008) (The Newser description of its
services continues “It’s the Newser guarantee: we can take any report or column or video and
pack what you need to know into 120 words or less. Newser’s short-form aggregation, visual
format, and unique information tools help you get more of the kind of news you want, in a quicker
and more entertaining way. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in
between) for something new that matters.”)
77
See http://newsy.com/ (“In an increasingly connected world, access to multiperspective
news is in demand by global citizens. News sources are abundant yet redundant. Newsy.com
delivers context with convenience to help keep you better informed. Through short video
segments available on the web and mobile devices, Newsy.com offers a way to accelerate your
global understanding of a news story. Newsy.com takes a step back to show how the world's news
organizations are reporting a story—providing an unprecendented [sic] global and macro point of
view. You'll find CNN right next to Al Jazeera, the BBC right next to ABC. Newsy.com also covers
major newspapers, news magazines as well as top blogs from around the world.”)
78
79
Id.
80
See http://news.google.com/ (last visited Dec. 12, 2008).
81
Id.
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 11 of 34
News82 and The Daily Climate83 aggregate environmental-specific news on a daily
basis.
In sum, the Internet has become central to news delivery. Environmental law
and policy advocates must be facile with the Internet, and prepared to think in
terms of how best to engage through the multiple platforms the Internet involves.
c. Economics and the New Media
Economic realities are playing a role in the drive to new technologies.
Audience declines coupled with worldwide economic realities have left many news
organizations facing financial crises.84 In fact, the state of the American news
media in 2008 is more troubled than ever before, according to a study by the Pew
Research Center.85 The main problem is not the changing media landscape—
rather, it is money. As outlets shift, advertising revenue is not migrating in
lockstep-fashion online, and income for most media providers is thus dropping.86
Changes in the media landscape coupled with economic shifts are forcing
many journalists to reinvent their profession and outlets their business models.
This situation has led to some transformation in the way journalists cover news.
For example, in 2008 WUSA TV became “the first station in Washington to replace
its crews with one-person ‘multimedia journalists’ who will shoot and edit news
stories single-handedly.”87 Under this approach, television reporters will be
shooting and editing their own stories, and those who have traditionally been the
ones behind the camera will be doing the work of reporters, occasionally
appearing on TV or in video clips on the stations’ Web site.88 In the print arena,
some “daily” newspapers are only publishing six (or fewer) days a week.89
82
Environmental Health News, http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ (last visited Jan. 24,
2009).
83
The Daily Climate, http://www.dailyclimate.org/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
Pew Research Center Publications, Financial Woes Overshadow All Other Concerns for
Journalists (Mar. 17, 2008), http://pewresearch.org/pubs/766/journalsits-financial-woes (last
84
visited Dec. 22, 2008).
Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media
An
Annual
Report
on
American
Journalism ,
http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2008/narrative_overview_eight.php?cat=1&media=1
85
2008,
See Pew Research Center Publications, Financial Woes Overshadow All Other Concerns for
Journalists, supra note 84.
86
Paul Farhi, WUSA moves to One-Person News Crews, WASH. POST, Dec. 12, ____, at C01,
at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121103976.html?referrer=emailarticle.
87
available
88
Id.
See, e.g., Joe Strupp, Georgia Daily to Drop Monday Paper, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=100392436
9 (last visited Dec. 23, 2008).
89
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 12 of 34
Conferences on achieving convergence, such as one hosted by the American
Press Institute in 2005 entitled, “Cross-Platform Media Teams: Strategic Thinking
for a Multi-Platform World,”90 or another hosted by Newsplex at the College of
Mass Communications and Information Studies at the University of South Carolina
in 2008, entitled “Teaching and Research in Convergent Media,”91 are becoming
common.
Such convergence has the most direct impact on those working in the media.
For example, one journalist described his experience with simultaneous multimedia reporting of the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show for CNN, as “getting a
very personal look at how technology is changing journalism and the consumption
of news.”92 He talked about his multi-platform journalism by saying that “[n]ot
only was I providing traditional live reports for CNN, Headline News and CNN
International, I was also blogging for CNN.com, uploading digital photos . . . for
the tech section of the Web site, and, thanks to a flash memory-based
microphone, I was providing audio podcast interviews that ended up on Apple’s
iTunes. A CNN.com camera crew following me around the Convention Center floor
produced streaming video reports for the network Web site.”93
Thus, journalism as a profession is changing. As one reporter wrote in his
blog, “[o]ur challenge in this painful, historic time is to invent journalistic forms
and alliances that citizens will support to get the facts they need to govern
themselves. One journalist told me it will not be a silver bullet, one-size-fits-all
answer, but a media cocktail where modern news consumers choose what they
want. . . . There will not be one answer, but many.”94
Many in the media are hoping convergence will offer a long term answer to
their problems.95 However, it is worth noting that stations in Nashville and San
See The Media Center, American Press Institute, Cross-Platform Media teams—Strategic
Thinking for a Multi-Platform World, http://www.mediacenter.org/content/5103.cfm (last visited
90
Dec. 23, 2008).
91
University of South Carolina College of Mass Communications and Information Studies,
Teaching and Research in Convergent Media , http://newsplex.sc.edu/newsplex08/sumsem.html
(last visited Dec. 30, 2008). Newsplex has been teaching and studying convergence since 2002.
History of Newsplex, http://newsplex.sc.edu/about/history/index.html (“At a time when some are
just discovering and experimenting with the concepts of convergence, we have been practicing
them in Newsplex since 2002.”)
Renay San Miguel, If Users Are 'Integrating' TV, Web News, Why Can't Journalists?, ECOMMERCE
TIMES,
Aug.
18,
2008,
available
at
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/64204.html?wlc=1229019341.
92
93
Id.
Joe Grimm, How to Stop the Bleeding from Journalism Job Cuts, POYNTER ON-LINE (Sept. 4,
2008), http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=149867&sid=62 (last visited Dec.
21, 2008).
94
95
See THE MISSOURI GROUP, TELLING THE STORY: THE CONVERGENCE OF PRINT, BROADCAST AND
ONLINE MEDIA, supra note 30, at 24.
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 13 of 34
Francisco who used multimedia journalists on an experimental basis backed away
because of “falling quality” and declining ratings.96 Just as the first move for
convergence for many media outlets has been incorporating a Web presence97
into their traditional media platform, the environmental lawyer will need to
leverage this new media (as well as traditional media) to be successful in the
Internet era.
Those seeking coverage must therefore remain aware that journalists are
doing plenty and being asked to do even more these days. Journalists are, at the
same time, worried about their profession. The President of the Society of
Professional Journalists admitted in 200898 that “it is difficult to be cheery and
optimistic about the news business at this time, especially newspapers. We are all
susceptible to the possibility of layoffs in our newsroom. . . .”99 Furthermore, he
wrote, “[t]he news business continues to struggle with a bleak economy and an
industry evolution that is seeing people’s advertising and news consumption
habits shift at a pace that has us struggling to keep up.” 100 Nevertheless, he
concluded that “[d]espite the rough economic news and trends, there is some
belief that things will settle and the reshaping and restructuring that has shaken
our faith will pay dividends. The role journalists play in democracy is far too
important to give up on it.”101
There is no doubt, however, that convergence has refocused journalism to its
core mission—informing the public.102 Today, that means a multi-layered media
approach, involving news from newspapers, television, radio and the Internet. 103
So what does this mean for journalists and the future of journalism? For
reporters, this new media is a new way to tell news stories.104 For the journalism
96
See Farhi, WUSA moves to One-Person News Crews, supra note 87.
97
Id. at 23.
Dave Aeikens, Our profession is not dying, it’s just changing, QUILL MAGAZINE, Dec. 2008, at
3, available at https://www.spj.org/quill/quillcurrent1.pdf (last visited Dec. 20, 2008).
98
Id. (“Newspaper circulation and network news viewership is sliding, yet millions of people
are still watching the network news—and cable TV news is showing growth. Thousands of people
are still buying newspapers, and thousands more are reading stories online or getting them sent
to their phones. News sites are among the most trafficked Web sites in the country. CNN and The
New York Times rank in the top 25. The most popular Web pages are search engines and social
networking sites.”).
99
100
See Aeikens, Our profession is not dying, it’s just changing, supra note 98.
101
Id.
KOLODZY, CONVERGENCE JOURNALISM: WRITING AND REPORTING ACROSS THE NEWS MEDIA, supra
note 31, at 4.
102
103
104
Id.
JOHN V. PAVLIK, JOURNALISM AND THE NEW MEDIA 3 (Columbia Univ. Press, 2001) (“. . . today
it can be said that the Internet is a journalist’s medium. The Internet not only embraces all the
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 14 of 34
profession, “the most promising element heading into 2008 may be innovation.
The news industry now appears to be taking to new technology in earnest.”105 For
the environmental law and policy advocate, it means that attracting appropriate
news coverage may involve even more effort.
III.
Audience-Centric Reporting
Recent advances in technology have transformed consumers from a passive
“audience” to active participants in the creation, analysis, and distribution of mass
media content.106 As a leading media textbook by John Vivian points out, “major
media companies also are trying to establish a future for themselves in reaching
audiences in new digital ways.”107 That text goes on to explain that “[t]raditional
origination points for communication, like a book publisher or a radio station,
suddenly have been joined by millions of additional origination points, all
interconnected.”108 This chapter is about the changing media landscape, and this
section focuses on the role that the audience is playing in that landscape’s
evolution.
The mass media audience has moved front and center as journalism has
entered the twenty-first century. Dan Gillmor, a journalism scholar devoted to
studying new media trends, describes media that come from the audience as part
of “a global conversation that is growing in strength, complexity and power.
When people can express themselves, they will. When they can do so with
powerful yet inexpensive tools, they take to the new-media realm quickly. When
they can reach a potentially global audience, they can change the world.” 109 As
stated similarly by legal scholar Jerome Barron: “[Forty years ago], the media
capabilities of the older media (text, images, graphics, animation, audio, video, real-time delivery)
but offers a broad spectrum of new capabilities, including interactively, on-demand access, user
control, and customization.”).
Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media 2008: An Annual Report
American
Journalism,
available
at
http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2008/narrative_overview_audience.php?cat=3&media=1.
(last visited Dec. 12, 2008).
105
on
See, e.g., Columbia Journalism Review and Consumer Reports, The New Age of Citizen
Journalism, Jarvis/Darnton Panel On Citizen Journalism, Nov. 20, 2008. Audio available at
106
http://www.cjr.org/audio/the_new_age_of_citizen_journal.php (last visited Jan. 18, 2009) (The
Panel “was designed to address questions about how professional journalists should cover
consumer issues at a time when big-name bloggers, online vigilantes, and anonymous userreviewers have turned word-of-mouth into a powerful weapon and traditional consumer reporters
are falling victim to budget cuts. CJR publisher Evan Cornog moderated a panel discussion on the
relative merits of citizen and professional journalism.”).
107
JOHN VIVIAN, THE MEDIA OF MASS COMMUNICATION 271 (Pearson, 8th ed. 2008).
108
Id. at 253.
109
DAN GILLMOR, WE THE MEDIA: GRASSROOTS JOURNALISM BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE xv
(O'Reilly, 2006)
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 15 of 34
world in the United States was very different than it is today. The major television
networks and the daily newspapers had an influence on and a dominance over
the opinion process that they do not have today. These television networks and
newspaper chains once operated as the gatekeepers to the opinion process. They
are still powerful and influential, but the rise of the Internet has shrunk their
domain.”110
In other words, news has become audience-centric. We adopt the term
audience-centric, which is not original to us,111 as representing the concept we
(and other scholars) have observed in recent years. To us, the term audiencecentric reporting means journalism that embraces the audience in shaping
(including originating, gathering, disseminating, commenting on, etc.) news, both
in real time and in reflective or investigative efforts. Terms that others have used
to capture this concept include grassroots journalism, networked journalism, open
source journalism, citizen media, participatory journalism, hyperlocal journalism,
bottom-up journalism, distributed journalism, and others.112 Regardless of the
term used,113 the concept of audience-centric reporting is not only a “hot topic,” it
is an essential consideration for those who wish to work with the mass media in
this day and time.
Freelance journalist Mark Glaser has summarized the audience-centric
phenomenon as follows: “When a traditional media outlet covers a story, the
editor usually assigns the story to a reporter, the reporter does the work and
turns in a story that gets edited and published. But in the case of ad hoc citizen
journalism, a blogger or observer might see something happening that's
newsworthy and bring it to the attention of the blogosphere or the online public.
As more people uncover facts and work together, the story can snowball without
Jerome A. Barron, Reclaiming The First Amendment: Constitutional Theories Of Media
Reform: Access To The Media—A Contemporary Appraisal, 35 HOFSTRA L. REV. 937, 945 (2007).
110
See, e.g., PRWeb, Bonfire Chief to Present Webcast on Audience-Centric Communication
Planning
(Sept.
14,
2007),
available
at
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/09/prweb553250.htm (last visited Jan. 18, 2009); Pei Jiun
Tan & Dave Clarke, Audience-centric taxonomy: using taxonomies to support heterogeneous user
communities, International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications 2007, available
at http://www.dcmipubs.org/ojs/index.php/pubs/article/viewFile/49/21 (last visited Jan. 18, 2009).
111
Mark Glaser, Your Guide to Citizen Journalism, MEDIASHIFT, Sept. 27, 2006,
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/09/your-guide-to-citizen-journalism270.html (last visited Jan.
18, 2009).
112
113
There is some debate about various terms, including citizen journalism, that should be
acknowledged. Steve Boris, Citizen Journalism is dead. Expert Journalism is the future (Nov. 28,
2007) http://thefutureofnews.com/2007/11/28/citizen-journalism-is-dead-expert-journalism-is-thefuture/ (last visited Jan. 28, 2009) (“Citizen Journalism seems to serve the wishful-thinking needs
of job-fearing journalists, but not the real needs of typical news consumers who would just as
soon read quality material without being asked to help. The model that will work — that will make
news better, not worse — is one that combines the talents of topic experts throughout the web
with those who have a knack for aggregating and editing their material to satisfy an audience.”)
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 16 of 34
a guiding editor and can produce interesting results—leading to the mainstream
media finally covering it and giving it wider exposure.”114 The audience is in the
middle of reporting…and often at the beginning or the end as well.
As one considers this new reality, it is important to keep in mind that the
transition from the traditional media115 has not only changed how content is
created but what content is created. While traditional media had typically involved
watching TV news and reading the newspaper to hear
stories that reflect general news values, other factors “Journalism of the future will
can come into play today. In fact, as the transition to involve all sorts of media: old
and new, niche and mass, the
audience-centric media accelerated—when mobile
personal and the global. It will
devices such as cell phones became prevalent and involve storytelling in every
connectivity to the Internet became mainstream116—the combination of words, picture,
nature of news has changed on many levels. What and sound.
And it will be
does this mean in an environmental law and policy propelled not just by journalists
context? Whether it’s an update on water quality in a but by news audiences. That is
local stream or a disappointed taxpayer voicing already apparent today.”
—Janet Kolodzy
objection to a building ordinance proposal, Internet and
other technologies have shifted power and made the
job of many journalists more participatory. It simultaneously increased the
responsibility of environmental advocates to leverage the mass media when
appropriate to their causes.
Today, content for the new mass media is often captured, processed, and
transmitted through mobile devices, passed along social network sites,117 and in
some cases becomes the headline story for traditional media. 118 The audience is
often in the thick of things.
114
Id.
115
One commentator has opined about the emerging role of journalists thusly: “If the public is
assumed to be ‘out there,’ more or less intact, then the job of the press is easy to state: to inform
people about what goes on in their name and in their midst. But suppose the public leads a more
broken existence. At times it may be alert and engaged, but just as often it struggles against
other pressures – including itself—that can win out in the end. Inattention to public matters is
perhaps the simplest of these, atomization of society one of the more intricate. Money speaks
louder than the public, problems overwhelm it, fatigue sets in, attention falters, cynicism swells. A
public that leads this more fragile kind of existence suggests a different task for the press: not just
to inform a public that may or may not emerge, but to improve the chances that it will emerge.”
JAY ROSEN, WHAT ARE JOURNALISTS FOR? 19 (Yale Univ. Press, 2001).
See Helen Legatt, Number of American Internet Users Continue to Rise, BIZREPORT, Nov. 6, 2007,
http://www.bizreport.com/2007/11/number_of_american_internet_users_continues_to_rise.html.
116
117
See, e.g., Facebook, http://www.facebook.com (last visited Jan. 18, 2009); LinkedIn,
http://www.linkedin.com (last visited Jan. 18, 2009); MySpace, http://www.myspace.com (last
visited Jan. 18, 2009); Spoke, http://www.spoke.com (last visited Jan. 23, 2009).
See, e.g., CNN iReport, http://www.ireport.com (last visited Oct. 23, 2008) (local
“iReporter” published information on beached Killer Whale in Hawaii), Fox News uReport,
http://ureport.foxnews.com (last visited Oct. 23, 2008) (photos of Hurricane Dolly in Corpus
118
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 17 of 34
As will be discussed below, some audience-centric reporting is purely usergenerated. Yet in an attempt to harness the “journalist at large” evolution,
traditional media outlets have also incorporated increased audience-defined
content into online venues for the media outlet.119 For example, CNN incorporates
user video through iReporter120 segments, Fox News does the same through the
use of UReport,121 and Reuters has You Witness News122 to allow the public at
large to comment, share, or report on ongoing events of interest.123 In preparing
for coverage of the 2008 Democratic and Republican conventions, Reuters openly
embraced the new breed of citizen journalism in its request for mobile journalists
to participate in the convention coverage. In so doing, Reuters acknowledged that
“. . . because of new technology and online distribution, entire elections can now
hinge on moments captured not by traditional journalists, but by ordinary citizens
and those closest to the action.”124
Some journalists are struggling to keep up with these developments. As one
commentator put it, “[a]sk any journalist today how the Internet has changed
journalism, and the most likely reply will be, ‘how hasn't it?’” 125 Professional
journalists are being told to “incorporate the freedom to tell the story inherent in
Christi, TX and Galveston, TX submitted by “UReporters” and used on the Fox News Channel
broadcast).
119
Please note that mainstream media has accepted helpful visuals from audience members
for decades. So while this phenomenon has certainly increased recently, audience participation is
not unique to the Internet age. Telephone interview with Matthew F. Connolly, Jr. (January 24,
2009).
120
CNN iReport, http://www.ireport.com (last visited Jan. 18, 2009).
121
Fox News UReport, http://ureport.foxnews.com (last visited Jan. 18, 2009).
122
2009).
Reuters You Witness News, http://www.reuters.com/youwitness (last visited Jan. 18,
123
In fact, some entrepreneurial efforts are directed at making mobile phone videos easier to
transfer to newsroom feeds. See Viz|Reporter 1.0 Makes Cell Phone Video Transfer to Newsroom
More Efficient, MOBILEWHACK, http://www.mobilewhack.com/vizreporter-10-makes-cell-phonevideo-transfer-to-newsroom-more-efficient/ (last visited Jan. 18, 2009).
Adam
Pasick,
Tales
from
the
Trail,
REUTERS,
July
28,
2008,
http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/07/28/are-you-going-to-the-conventions-in-st-paul-anddenver/ (last visited Aug. 19, 2008) (request by Reuters for attendees of either party’s convention
to participate in Reuters’ mobile journalism project to capture “unseen side of the conventions”).
124
Katherine Noyes, Journalism 2.0: Power to the People , TECHNEWSWORLD (May 3, 2007)
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/57193.html (last visited Jan. 19, 2008) (“Indeed, journalists
of past generations would scarcely recognize the profession today. Most journalistic research is
done on the Web; interviews are frequently set up, if not conducted, over e-mail; and telephone
interviews have become the norm. Many reporters never leave the office all day. Virtually every
newspaper, magazine, TV and radio station now has an online component, while Internet news
aggregators serve up selections from all across the Web. Meanwhile, the rise of blogs and citizen
journalism have created a world in which anyone can create their own journalism—and get it
heard by an audience of millions.”).
125
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 18 of 34
citizen journalism without losing traditional principles.”126 This may be easier said
than done.
What does this mean for the environmental advocate? The proliferation of
readily-accessible and easy-to-use technology can allow even small groups to
disseminate information to a wide audience.127 Of course, a centralized website
can continue to ensure consistency of a message and accommodate the
audience’s schedule.128 Although website development is not the topic of this
book, environmental stakeholders must be prepared to compliment their
marketing strategy with an enticing presence on the Internet. Just as national
interest groups like Sierra Club,129 the National Association of Homebuilders,130 and
national environmental law organizations like the Pacific Legal Foundation 131 and
Earthjustice,132 rely on Internet sites to support distribution of information, smaller
citizen groups such as the Colusa County Citizens for Safe Water,133 the South
Carolina-based Citizens for Sound Conservation,134 and the South Carolina
Lowcountry-focused Friends of the Rivers135 are using the Internet to present a
message and attract interest in their work.
Aligning Citizen Journalism and Traditional Journalism , IZIVISO.COM INT’L ONLINE MAGAZINE
(Apr.
28,
2008),
http://zivizo.com/2008/04/28/aligning-citizen-journalism-and-traditionaljournalism/ (last visited Jan. 18, 2009).
126
See David Barboza, China Surpasses U.S. in Number of Internet Users, N.Y. TIMES, July 26,
2008, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/business/worldbusiness/26internet.html
(estimated that there are approximately 220 million Americans have Internet access).
127
128
For example, publishing a phone number for concerned citizens for more information may
provide consumers with updated information but there will be the additional cost of staffing the
phones to answer the potential calls as well as ensuring that the same message is communicated
based on the number of resources used to respond to inquiries. By complimenting a campaign
with a website, an organization can provide a single location for inquiries which may provide many
of the standard questions and answers that are foreseeable. Also, websites are available when
the consumer is ready to receive the information—not just during business hours such as 8am–
5pm when a call center may be staffed to take a call.
129
Sierra Club, http://www.sierraclub.org (last visited Jan. 19, 2009).
130
National Association of Home Builders, http://www.nahb.org/ (last visited Jan. 19, 2009).
Pacific Legal Foundation, http://community.pacificlegal.org/Page.aspx?pid=183 (last visited
Jan. 19, 2009).
131
132
Earthjustice, http://www.earthjustice.org/ (last visited Jan. 19, 2009).
Colusa County Citizens for Safe Water, http://www.savesacvalleywater.com (last visited
Jan 19, 2009) (citizen group in California seeking to prevent a local initiative that would turn the
Cortina Indian Land into a landfill).
133
134
Citizens for Sound Conservation, http://www.citizensforsoundconservation.com/ (last
visited Jan. 19, 2009).
135
Friends of the Rivers, http://www.friendsoftherivers.com/link.php?link=home (last visited
Jan. 19, 2008) (“providing water quality education and information to residents of the South
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 19 of 34
Good websites are, however, no longer enough. Facebook136 and Linked-In
pages,137 Twitter Tweets,138 RSS feeds,139 blogs and other evolving tools are
becoming the common tools140 used even by lawyers. As will be further explored
below, audience-centric media is evolving quickly. In fact, portions of this book
will be old news by its publication, in terms of the details of all the options
available in this arena. New media expert Amy Gahran has explained that
“[o]nline communication and publishing technology isn’t just one-way — it’s all
ways, all the time.”141 The role of the audience in this new world is crucial, and it
is shifting.
Beyond the introduction of the Internet, it is the audience-centric aspects of
the web that have most impacted the work of journalists. Emily Bell, Editor-inChief of Guardian, commented in May 2008 on the changing world of news,
pointing not to the Internet per se when reflecting on the rapid shifts, but “much
more what's happened with various programming protocols since, what you
would know as Web 2.0, which is the ability to allow the uploading of information
by the local generation. Flickr, blogs, etc. have completely changed the game,
because it means all matter of information is exposed and is available to be
manipulated, uploaded, reported on, etc. by a whole set of people who are no
longer in control of a distribution bottleneck.”142
Below, we briefly explore some of these new audience-centric media outlets,
including blogs, podcasts, RSS, Wiki, Widget and Social Networks. This section of
the book is not meant to be a complete list or a definitive exploration of these
areas, but rather an introduction to some “new” concepts available in an
Carolina Lowcountry as it relates to a community’s cultural, social, economic, or scientific
concerns.”)
136
Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/ (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
137
Linked In, http://www.linkedin.com/home (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
138
Twitter, http://twitter.com/ (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
Denis Sureau, RSS—Really Simple Syndication Building and Using an RSS Feed ,
http://www.xul.fr/en-xml-rss.html (last visited Jan. 24, 2008).
139
140
THE MISSOURI GROUP, TELLING THE STORY: THE CONVERGENCE OF PRINT, BROADCAST AND ONLINE
MEDIA, supra note 30, at 5, 16-18.
Amy Gahran, Participatory Journalism in the USA: My Talk (Nov. 16, 2007),
http://www.contentious.com/2007/11/16/participatory-journalism-in-the-usa-my-talk (last visited
Jan 19, 2009).
141
142
Jean Yves Chainon, Future of journalism series: Emily Bell—guardian.co.uk (May 19, 2008),
http://www.editorsweblog.org/special.php?tag=Future%20of%20journalism%20series&IncludeBlo
gs=1 (Answering the query “How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper
company or a print company?” with the response “We're not doing that already. We changed our
names last year from Guardian Newspapers Limited to Guardian News and Media, so we're
moving away from defining ourselves as a newspaper company. But we are still news. We are
news-oriented, we are a news media company.”).
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 20 of 34
audience-centric journalism world. Direct links and further exploration of these
areas are available on the book website at [INSERT].
Blogs
A blog (a contraction of the term “web log") is an Internet site with regular
entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics
or video.143 There are many approaches to blogging.144 In light of “the level of
activity and creativity, the negative image of blogging in the mainstream media
seems to be fading away as blogging becomes more popular.”145
Blogs by their nature are audience-centric, even though there are many forms
of blogs. Many individuals and organizations have their own blogs. 146 There are a
plethora of more general blogs dedicated to various environmental topics. 147
Likewise, mainstream media are increasingly relying on blogs in the
environmental arena.148 Individual journalists keep blogs about the journalism
industry and related topics.149 The world of blogs has even expanded to video
blogs150 which are sometimes referred to as VLOGs.151
See generally ARIANNA HUFFINGTON ET AL., THE HUFFINGTON POST COMPLETE GUIDE TO BLOGGING
(Wiley, 2008); AXEL BRUNS & JOANNE JACOBS, USES OF BLOGS (Peter Lang, 2006).
143
Michael Conniff, Just what is a blog, anyway?, Sept. 29, 2005, OJR,
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050929/ (“Defining this variable form is not easy in the highly
opinionated blogosphere—nor is it simple in the increasing number of newsrooms that are in
embracing blogging.”).
144
145
Id.
DOSHDOSH,
Top
20
Environmental
Blogs
You
Can
http://www.doshdosh.com/environmental-blogs-you-can-read/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
146
Read,
Josh
Catone,
The
Top
35
Environmental
Blogs,
Oct.
15,
2007,
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_35_environmental_blogs.php (last visited Jan. 24,
2009).
147
See, e.g., Dot Earth, NY. TIMES, available at http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/ (last visited
Jan.
24,
2009);
MSNBC
Environment,
http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/board.aspx?BoardID=781 (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
148
149
A good compilation of blogs by and about journalists is available at American Press
Institute,
Journalism
and
News
Industry
Blogs,
http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/pages/toolbox/news_industry_sites/journalism_and_news_
industry_b/ (last visited Dec. 20, 2008).
See Beet.TV, which “was launched in March 2006 by Andy Plesser as an exploration of the
transformation of media, using the platform of video blogging. Within six months, the editorial
direction became clearly focused on the rapid emergence of online video and its impact on
industry and society…” Beet.TV, About Us, http://www.beet.tv/about-us.html (last visited Dec. 20,
2008).
150
151
JAY DEDMAN ET AL., VIDEOBLOGGING 3 (John Wiley & Sons, 2006).
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 21 of 34
Podcasts
Podcasts are recorded audio programs posted on the Internet.152 As one
podcasting website describes it, “‘[a] podcast’ is a buzzword to describe a very
simple concept: an audio or video file available on the Internet for you to listen to
and/or watch.”153 Lawyers use podcasting all the time.154 As the ABA Law Practice
magazine explained in 2008, “[p]odcasts are great marketing vehicles for letting a
wide market know how knowledgeable you are in your chosen area of expertise.
And because they are voice-based, podcasts typically provide your audience with
a more personal, engaging view of you, since you can use inflections and tone,
inject humor and the like in ways that the written word does not allow.”155
If you want to use a podcast, first and foremost you must record it. 156 There
are various podcasting software applications you can purchase or download for
free from the web.157 Most people use their own computer, but often invest in a
good microphone even if one is built into the system.158 You also can use services
to record podcasts by phone.159 Once you have it recorded, you can use websites
dedicated to sharing podcasts, such as Podcast.com,160 and Podcast Alley,161 for
Linda Zimmer, Modern Media Tools for Modern Media Relations—Podcasting, ZNETLADY:
MODERN MEDIA, http://weblog.znetlady.com/2005/06/modern_media_to.html (last visited Jan. 19,
2009).
152
Postcast.com, What is a podcast?, http://blog.podcast.com/podcastcom-faq/what-is-apodcast/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
153
Eriq Gardner, Lawyers Podcast a Wide Net, CORPORATE COUNSEL, Nov. 2, 2005, available at
http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1130499502246 (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
154
Sharon Nelson & John Simek, Lawyers on the Air: How to Get Started in Podcasting , LAW
PRAC. 24 (Jan./Feb. 2008).
155
For one example of step-by-step directions, see Jake Ludington’s MediaBlab, Recording a
http://www.jakeludington.com/podcasting/20050222_recording_a_podcast.html (last
visited Jan. 24, 2009).
156
Podcast,
See TopTenREVIEWS, Podcast Software Review
review.toptenreviews.com/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
157
2009,
http://podcast-software-
See WIZE, Best Microphones for Podcasting, http://wize.com/microphones/t134-podcasting
(last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
158
See, e.g., Bloggers Blog, Podcast by Phone with Gcast, http://www.bloggersblog.com/cgibin/bloggersblog.pl?bblog=309064
(last
visited
Jan.
24,
2009),
Hipcast,
http://www.audioblog.com/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
159
160
Podcast.com, http://podcast.com/ (last visited Jan 24, 2009) (“Podcast.com is the premier
podcast destination that provides access to a growing list of over 60,000 curated and constantly
updated podcast feeds representing more than 1 million episodes of audio and video content.
Podcast.com's unique value proposition to content consumers also presents an unsurpassed way
for content providers to reach an audience that consumes podcasts via the Web, multimedia
devices and Internet radio.”).
161
Postcast Alley, http://www.podcastalley.com/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009) (“Welcome to the
best place to find all information relating to podcasts and podcasting. We are striving to develop
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 22 of 34
dissemination.162 Of course, you also can post your podcast on your organization’s
website.163
The important thing to keep in mind about podcasting is that the podcaster
can create content and broadcast it via the Internet without any professional
media involvement. If you don’t want to get in the podcasting business, you
might connect with existing environmental podcasting efforts. For example, Public
Radio International’s weekly “Living on Earth”164 has a podcast version. The
podcast is made available following the weekly broadcast of the show on some
300 public radio stations,165 which airs in 9 of the 10 top radio markets and
reaches 80% of the United States.166 There are numerous other podcast sites
about energy, alternative fuels, the wilderness and wildlife.167 The options for
creative use of podcasts by environmental law and policy professionals are
considerable.
RSS
RSS, Rich Site Summary168 or real simply syndication,169 “alerts users to new
material posted to their favorite blogs or news websites.”170 “Instead of trying to
keep up with all the websites you enjoy, or need to read, RSS will push the latest
the biggest and best directory of podcasts (podcast directory) available on the Internet.
Podcasting is a great way for professionals and individuals alike to create audio news files
(podcasts) that people can download to their iPods or other portable media devices and listen to
when they are away from their computers. Heck, some people even listen to these podcasts
directly from their computers, no mp3 player needed!”).
For a list of some services, see Robin Good, Podcasting Services: Best New Media Tools of
Week—Sharewood
Picnic
89,
http://www.masternewmedia.org/new_media/new_media_tools/best_new_media_tools_of_the_w
eek_20070203.htm (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
162
the
See
Indiana
University,
Posting
A
Podcast,
For
Authors ,
http://www.indiana.edu/~ittrain/oncourse/LYNTK_materials/OncourseCL-Podcasts.pdf (last visited
Jan. 24, 2009).
163
164
Public Radio International, Living on Earth, http://www.loe.org (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
Public Radio International, About Living on Earth,
http://www.loe.org/where/where.htm (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
165
166
where
to
tune
in ,
Id.
Joe Davis, Environmental Podcasts: New Opportunity for the Beat , Oct. 12, 2005,
http://members.sej.org/sej/tipsheet.php?ID=1130 (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
167
168
ABA, Legal Technology Resource Center, Helping Lawyers Solve the Technology Puzzle,
http://www.abanet.org/tech/ltrc/fyidocs/fyirss.html (last visited Jan 24, 2009).
169
THE MISSOURI GROUP, TELLING THE STORY: THE CONVERGENCE OF PRINT, BROADCAST AND ONLINE
MEDIA, supra note 30, at 18.
170
Id.
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 23 of 34
information to you. It’s news on demand based on your needs.”171 Most
newspapers, magazine and television websites now offer RSS feeds.172
RSS creates basically a list of hyperlinks.173 When you subscribe to RSS feeds,
you effectively are creating a wire service tailored174 to your personal interests. As
one expert described it, “RSS will save you time and make your Web surfing much
more efficient. Rather than tediously checking dozens of Web sites for new
information, RSS enables you to go to one place and find all the latest content
from each of those sites. RSS makes it easy to read lots of sites—from weblogs to
major media—in very little time.”175
Where does one get feeds? The Radio Television News Directors’ Association
delivers RSS feeds176 that provide updated information on everything from news
research to issues regarding Freedom of Information. The American Bar
Association offers feeds from the section of Environment, Energy and Resources
including highlights from the section on current topics.177 Countless other RSS
feeds are available to the lawyer178 and others interested in the environment. In
addition to subscribing, RSS is also a tool environmental lawyers and advocates
can use to share podcasts, website updates, and other current information.
Wiki
The wiki format is another form of audience-centric journalism.179 Open online
forums, called wikis, allow anyone to post and edit information.180 Wikis are
basically collaborative writing projects. The original idea behind wikis was to
create encyclopedias collecting knowledge from anyone and everyone, like
ABA, Legal Technology Resource Center, Helping Lawyers Solve the Technology Puzzle,
http://www.abanet.org/tech/ltrc/fyidocs/fyirss.html (last visited Jan 24, 2009).
171
172
THE MISSOURI GROUP, TELLING THE STORY: THE CONVERGENCE OF PRINT, BROADCAST AND ONLINE
MEDIA, supra note 30, at 18
173
Id.
174
Id.
Jonathan
Dube,
RSS
for
Journalists,
POYNTER
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=32&aid=78383 (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
175
176
ONLINE,
RTNDA RSS feeds, http://www.rtnda.org/pages/rss.php (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
ABA, Legal Technology Resource Center, Helping Lawyers Solve the Technology Puzzle,
http://www.abanet.org/tech/ltrc/fyidocs/fyirss.html (last visited Jan 24, 2009).
177
178
Feed for All, Lawyers Use RSS Feeds, http://www.feedforall.com/lawyers-use-rss-feeds.htm
(last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
179
THE MISSOURI GROUP, TELLING THE STORY: THE CONVERGENCE OF PRINT, BROADCAST AND ONLINE
MEDIA, supra note 30, at 18.
180
Id.
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 24 of 34
Wikipedia,181 which describes itself as “a multilingual, Web-based, free-content
encyclopedia project. The name ‘Wikipedia’ is a portmanteau . . . of the words
wiki (a type of collaborative Web site) and encyclopedia. Wikipedia's articles
provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information.
Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world;
anyone can edit it.”182 Wikis have developed into a participatory journalism
platform. For example, in response to Hurricane Katrina, wikis proved to be a
valuable resource.183 One site, for example, posted constantly-updated
information such as facts about housing, help needed, volunteers, and jobs.184
There are wikis dedicated to many subjects, including the environment. 185
Participating in drafting or posting links to wikis may be of benefit to
environmental lawyers and advocates.
Widget
A web widget is a portable application that you can install on your website,
blog, social networking page or computer desktop.186 For example, CBS News
widgets allow you to embed free breaking news and entertainment content on
your personal site.187 Once the widget is installed, it updates itself automatically
with fresh stories, photos or video.188 Widgets can be time savers and important
tools for environmental lawyers and advocates.
181
Wikipedia, http://www.wikipedia.org/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
Wikipedia, Wikipedia:About, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About (last visited Jan.
24, 2009).
182
THE MISSOURI GROUP, TELLING THE STORY: THE CONVERGENCE OF PRINT, BROADCAST AND ONLINE
MEDIA,
supra
note
30,
at
18.
See
also
Hurricane
Katrina
Wiki
at
http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Main_Page (last visited July 24, 2008).
183
Hurricane Katrina Wiki at http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Main_Page (last visited July
12, 2008).
184
185
2009).
See, e.g., Wikiagreen, http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia_Green (last visited Jan. 24,
186
Widgets for Web 2.0, What is a Web Widget,
gadgets.com/2007/08/what-is-web-widget.html (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
http://www.widgets-
CBS
News
Widgets,
Widget
FAQ,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/25/utility/main3874002.shtml (last visited Jan. 24,
2009).
187
188
Id.
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 25 of 34
Social Networks
Twitter,189 LinkedIN,190 Facebook,191 MySpace192 and FriendFeed193 are all social
networking sites. Scholars who study this phenomenon have defined “social
network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a
public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other
users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of
connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and
nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.” 194 Because “there
is little empirical research that addresses whether members use [social
networking sites] to maintain existing ties or to form new ones, the social capital
implications of these services are unknown.”195 But they are hugely popular.
Knowing this, many mainstream media are active in these social networks.196
Twitter: describes itself as “a service for friends, family, and co-workers to
communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent
answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”197 When you send a
message on Twitter, you are “tweeting.”198 Like other social networking tools,
Twitter is increasingly being used by media professionals and quickly is working
its way into the reporter’s toolkit.199 “In recent months, the Twittering crowd at
CNN has exploded from 25 people to about 150.”200 CNN anchors are tweeting
while they’re on air.201 According to Victor Hernandez, director of coverage for
189
Twitter, http://twitter.com/ (last visited Dec. 14, 2008). See also Nicole Garrison-Sprenger,
Twittery-Do-Dah, Twittering Pays, QUILL MAGAZINE 12-14 (Oct./Nov. 2008), available at
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-35915850_ITM.
190
Linked In, http://www.linkedin.com/home (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
191
Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/ (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
192
MySpace, http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.aboutus (last visited Dec.
14, 2008).
193
Friend Feed, http://friendfeed.com/ (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
Danah M. Boy & Nicole B. Ellison, Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship, 13 J.
COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMM. 11, available at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html.
194
Nicole B. Ellison et al., The Benefits of Facebook ‘‘Friends:’’ Social Capital and College
Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites, 12 J. COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMM. 1143 (2007).
195
196
See, e.g., CNN, Tools and Extras, http://www.cnn.com/tools/index.html (last visited Jan.
24, 2009).
197
Twitter, http://twitter.com/ (last visited December 14, 2008).
198
Id.
199
Garrison-Sprenger, Twittery-Do-Dah, Twittering Pays, supra note 189, at 12-13.
200
Id.
201
Id.
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 26 of 34
CNN, “[t]oday it’s a part of everyone’s lives, and not just the geeks.”202 Twitter
has been likewise touted as a tool for legal marketing.203
Environmental news is breaking and developing on Twitter. For example,
when the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal ash disaster occurred on December
23, 2008, environmental journalist Amy Gahran posted the first of what would
become hundreds of tweets about the breach, days before the mainstream media
even carried the story.204 Since then, hundreds of tweets have been shared on
Twitter, including many from major outlets.205
LinkedIn: is yet another online social networking site. LinkedIn is “an online
network of more than 30 million experienced professionals from around the world
representing 150 industries.”206 As one lawyer put it, “LinkedIn provides an online
method to network. Simply register for a FREE account, enter a few facts about
yourself (occupation, employers, education—as much or as little as you want),
and you can instantly connect with people like yourself.”207 The American Bar
Association’s Section on Energy Environment and Resources has many LinkedIn
members.208 Journalists are active on LinkedIn as well, using it for both personal
career reasons, as well as finding sources, topics and trends.209
The future of social networking is unclear, yet there clearly are opportunities
for the environmental lawyer and advocate to use these facile tools.
Video Sharing Sites
There also are websites where anyone with an Internet connection can watch
and share original videos worldwide. Perhaps the most well-known of these sites,
202
See Garrison-Sprenger, Twittery-Do-Dah, Twittering Pays, supra note 189, at 13.
Kevin O’Keefe, Lawyer marketing with Twitter has arrived, May 5, 2008,
http://kevin.lexblog.com/2008/05/articles/social-networking-1/lawyer-marketing-with-twitter-hasarrived-/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
203
204
Twitter, http://twitter.com/agahran/statuses/1074391248 (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
205
Twitter, http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23coalash (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
206
http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=company_info (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
Andrew Flushe, LinkedIn Can Network Lawyers to Each Other and to Clients , Oct. 17,
2006, http://www.legalandrew.com/2006/10/17/linkedin-can-network-lawyers-to-each-other-andto-clients/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
207
ABA
Section
of
Environment,
Energy,
and
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=1018127 (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
208
Resources,
209
See also 10 Ways journalists can use LinkedIn, Apr. 24, 2007,
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2007/04/24/ten-ways-journalists-can-use-linkedin/ (last visited
Jan. 24, 2009) Kevin O’Keefe, Lawyers use of LinkedIn : It's becoming an avalanche ,
http://kevin.lexblog.com/2008/06/articles/law-firm-marketing/lawyers-use-of-linkedin-itsbecoming-an-avalanche/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2008).
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 27 of 34
YouTube,210 allows people to easily upload and share videos across the Internet
through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email. YouTube even has a citizen
journalism section called Citizen News.211 Recognizing its power, many major
broadcast news outlets have feeds on YouTube.212 At the same time, regardless of
viewpoint, many advocates frequently use YouTube on an individual level for
environmental matters.213 Environmental advocates should monitor, and perhaps
consider using, this increasingly powerful medium.214
In closing, this section shows that much of the news audience can and has
moved front and center in terms of the way they interact with news.215 Be aware
that, in light of this audience-centric world, direct communications between
individuals (including reporters and sources) have become multi-faceted. No
longer is it just a phone call or an in-person interview. Reporters communicate
frequently via email. As one reporter described it, “in addition to standard face-toface interviews and brief questions and fact checking done via email, Instant
Messaging (IM) is finding a place of its own across newsrooms across the country
as a way to streamline the reporting process. Offering reporters the ability to
speak with sources in real time, IM has quickly replaced the wait reporters had to
endure for a response to email or phone messages”216 Other platforms also are
210
YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/t/about (last visited Dec. 14 2008).
YouTube, Citizen News, http://www.youtube.com/user/citizennews (last visited Jan. 24,
2009). See David Chartier, News unfilter4ed: YouTube embraces citizen journalism, May 20, 2009,
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080520-news-unfiltered-youtube-embraces-citizenjournalism.html (last visited Jan. 24, 2009) (“Elbowing aside the media elite, YouTube wants to
grab a seat at the anchor desk with a new channel dubbed ‘Citizen News.’ Harnessing the
advantages of the burgeoning citizen journalism movement, YouTube aims to aggregate and
capitalize on newsworthy content produced by an increasingly well-equipped user base.”).
211
See YouTube, News & Politics, http://www.youtube.com/members?t=w&g=0&c=25 (last
visited Jan. 24, 2009) (including feeds from Associated Press, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and others).
212
Compare
YouTube,
John
A.
Rapanos
v.
US,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlDcJGkIv28 (last visited Jan. 24, 2009); YouTube, Oberstar
Statement: Clean Water Restoration Act. Part—1, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ib-UiXYGKo
(last visited Jan. 24, 2008); YouTube, American Rivers, Congress Acts to Protect Clean Water,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj0RhdjTahw (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
213
Laura Knoy, New Hampshire Public Radio, The Power of YouTube, (Oct. 31, 2006),
http://www.nhpr.org/node/11718 (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
214
Educause Learning Initiative, 7 things you should know about Citizen Journalism (Nov.
2007), available at http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7031.pdf (“While conscientious
professional journalists are careful to separate supportable evidence from opinion or speculation,
many citizen journalists have a weaker sense of what constitutes a reliable story, free of
conjecture. Consumers of citizen journalism should understand that however well-intentioned a
citizen journalist might be, reading the news with a skeptical eye is a good practice.”)
215
216
Brandon De Hoyos, Transforming the Newsroom with Instant Messaging—IM Streamlines
the Reporting Process, ABOUT.COM, http://im.about.com/od/imforbusiness/a/imnewsroom.htm (last
visited Dec. 28, 2008).
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 28 of 34
becoming increasingly prevalent, including Twittering, and others. Likewise,
another journalist has written that Facebook pages “are particularly useful for
stories where events are still unfolding because they will often carry eyewitness
accounts and background material.”217 Thus even if an environmental lawyer or
advocate is not engaged in creating content or active through LinkedIn, Twitter,
or YouTube, the reporter covering the story may be getting information and
contacting other sources through these audience-centric frameworks. This is an
area to watch closely in the coming decade.
IV.
Predicting the Future Media Landscape
Predicting the future of media with specificity is, of course, impossible. But
using concepts of what is available today, and reflecting on what historically has
developed, can help. As some convergence scholars have remarked, dissecting
the functions being performed by news media may assist in planning for a
broader world.218 So though the core lessons set forth in earlier chapters apply,
times are changing! As one on-line source notes, “[n]ewspaper readers will
demand to get the news they want, when they want it, and delivered the way
they want to get it. They will never again meekly accept news distributed in the
way media companies find most convenient.”219
Nevertheless, a vital role remains for journalism professionals to play in
deciding what to report. As veteran journalist Walter Cronkite220 put it, journalists
“make the judgment as to whether something is important or not. That's how
things get in the newspaper. That's how things get on the evening news
broadcast. What they think is important, it may not be what we judge to be
important. When we judge it, we're not judging it from on high, but through the
journalism standards, on what interests most of the people at any given moment
in time, and that which is important to most of the people get on the air.”221 So
being comfortable with traditional journalistic concepts will serve environmental
law and policy advocates well.
Shane Richmond, Facebook for journalists, (Jan. 11, 2008), Telegraph.co.uk,
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/shane_richmond/blog/2008/01/11/facebook_for_journalists
(last
visited Jan. 24, 2009).
217
Steven Schnaars et al., Predicting the Emergence of Innovations from Technological
Convergence: Lessons from the Twentieth Century 28 J. MACROMARKETING 157, 167(2008).
218
219
See http://www.futureofnews.com/ (last visited Dec. 12, 2008).
220
Some even refer to Walter Cronkite as the “most trusted man in America.” PAUL WESTMAN,
WALTER CRONKITE: THE MOST TRUSTED MAN IN AMERICA (Taking Part Books, 1980).
221
Walter
Cronkite,
on
Frontline,
The
Future
of
News,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/tags/whatisnews.html (last visited Dec. 12,
2008).
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 29 of 34
For example, consumers still may want to know that print journalists are
investigating and writing big stories, even though they may not read them.222
Likewise, although network news is not going to disappear,223 audiences are
shifting and, in some demographics, declining.224 Internet audiences are not
stable.225
Nevertheless, the increasing role of news as entertainment226 is real. As the
former anchor of Nightline, Ted Koppel, remarked, “[t]o the extent that we’re
now judging journalism by the same standards that we apply to entertainment –in
other words, give the public what it wants, not necessarily what it ought to hear,
what it ought to see, what it needs, but what it wants—that may prove to be one
of the greatest tragedies in the history of American journalism.”227 Yet it is
222
See
Larry
Kramer,
on
Frontline,
The
Future
of
News,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/tags/whatisnews.html (last visited Dec. 12,
2008) (“The Washington Post – every Sunday and many days of the week we'd have a story that
would start on the front page down in the corner, and it would be two columns wide and there
would be a headline, and then there would be a jump, and you'd open up the page, and there
would be two pages on the inside on this story. . . . But the reality is most people didn't read all
those stories. They wanted those stories to be there. They read the lede; they read the headlines.
They read some -- depending on their interest in the subject matter, read deeper and deeper into
the story perhaps. But most importantly, they wanted to know that The Washington Post was
watching these institutions and was devoting the resources to see if we, as the public, were being
ripped off in a way that we could never find out ourselves. That's great journalism. . . . That's still
true.”).
See Tom Bettag (Former Executive Producer, Nightline, CBS Evening News), on Frontline,
The
Future
of
News
(2007),
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/tags/networknews.html
(“[Question:]
So
network news, 60 Minutes, The New York Times, Washington Post -- not going to disappear?
[Answer:] Not going to disappear. I've been hearing since 1985 about the death of the evening
news, and, you know, wake me when it happens. People have been talking about this forever and
ever, and there are always going to be smart people who want to know what went on today.”).
223
See Jim Meyer, Despite Election, Network News Audience Shrinks , Nov. 21, 2008,
NEWSMAX.COM, http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/tv_news_shrinks/2008/11/21/153902.html
(last visited Dec. 11, 2008); Project for Excellence in Journalism, Audience, in THE STATE OF THE
NEWS
MEDIA
2008,
available
at
http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.com/2008/narrative_networktv_audience.php?cat=2&media=6.
224
Jennifer Saba, Time Spent at Most Top Newspaper Sites Declined Last Month , Dec. 29.
2008,
EDITOR
AND
PUBLISHER,
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003925439
(last visited Dec. 29, 2008) (“The average time spent at most of the top 30 newspaper Web sites
(as ranked by unique visitors) went down in November compared to the same period a year ago,
according to the latest data from Nielsen Online.”).
225
Markus Prior, News vs. Entertainment: How Increasing Media Choice Widens Gaps in
Political Knowledge and Turnout, 49 AM. J. POL. SCI. 577 (July 2005).
226
227
Ted
Koppel
on
Frontline,
The
Future
of
News
(2007),
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/tags/entertainment.html (last visited Dec. 12,
2008).
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 30 of 34
probably too late to alter the way news delivery choice has moved to the
consumer—as one scholar has remarked, “[e]ven if a consensus emerged to
reduce media choice for the public good, it would still be technically impossible,
even temporarily, to put the genie back in the bottle.”228 Being aware of audience
desires and how they may influence media professionals may, however, help the
environmental law and policy advocate in achieving effective media coverage.
There is no doubt, as has been discussed throughout this book, that the
Internet has changed journalism.229 The decade-old Online News Association
notes “[a]s digital delivery systems become the primary source of news for a
growing segment of the world's population, it presents complex challenges and
opportunities for journalists as well as the news audience.”230 The American
Society of Newspaper Editors has proposed the removal of the word “paper” to
reflect plans that will expand its membership to include editors of online-only
news Web.231 Further, “[e]yetracking research” is being used to strengthen news
websites.232 And as one scholar has noted, “[f]rom a media perspective, the
emergence of citizen journalism has blurred the line separating mainstream media
from online new media.”233 Journalism is transforming.
Therefore, environmental advocates must be ready for whatever comes, and
responsive to what they see as emerging needs. As discussed in previous
chapters,234 one must be both responsive, nimble, and focused to maximize
effective press coverage of environmental issues. These requirements will be even
more important as the media landscape continues to evolve. Therefore the final
section of this chapter provides a few “tips” for dealing with the changing
landscape of the media, referring back in many cases to previous chapters.
Prior, News vs. Entertainment: How Increasing Media Choice Widens Gaps in Political
Knowledge and Turnout , supra note 226, at 589.
228
Tara George, With Few Job Prospects, Journalism Students Should Learn Web Skills ,
POYNTERONLINE, http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=155453 (last visited Dec.
22, 2008) (“In 2007, 55.6 percent of B.A. graduates with jobs in communications wrote and edited
online, compared with 41.5 percent a year earlier and 30.3 percent in 2005.”).
229
Online News Association, Mission, http://journalists.org/?page=onamission (last visited
Dec. 22, 2008).
230
News Release, ASNE proposes taking 'paper' out of name, other significant changes to
bylaws, http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?id=7211 (last visited Dec. 22, 2008).
231
232
See, e.g., Nora Paul & Laura Ruel, Eyetracking research shows how younger readers view
news websites, Knight Digital Media Center, http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/paulruel/200812/1593/
(last visited Dec. 22, 2008).
Michael Geist, We Are All Journalists Now, TORONTO STAR (June 2006), available at
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1280&Itemid=85.
233
234
See Chapter 7, Responding to the News Media, and Chapter 8, Proactive Media Coverage.
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 31 of 34
V.
“Tips” for Navigating New Media
The media landscape certainly is changing (as the previous sections of this
chapter demonstrate) . . . but traditional news values are not outdated. Top
environmental journalists agree that even today primary journalism values are key
to environmental reporting.235 Thus, whatever the media platform, core
journalistic values should be recognized in planning media advocacy.236 Yet
succeeding in managing modern media as part of an overall legal strategy may
sometimes require thinking outside the box or applying known rules in a new
context. The tips in this section are designed to help you put in context earlier
parts of the book and apply them in the changing world as described earlier in the
chapter.

Become familiar with new platforms. If you are reading this book, you
appreciate the importance of media advocacy—yet the world of media is
rapidly changing. To the extent feasible, it therefore is vital to be familiar
with evolving tools in order to judge how and whether your clients or your
cause fit in. Remember, however, that no matter the platform, for the
public to connect with “news” it still must be compelling in order to
compete with the vast amount of available information out there.

Be brief and factual in any communication. Focus on the basics of
what journalists of any kind need to know: who, what, when, where, why
and how. Make your communications newsworthy. Refer back to Chapter
7, Responding to the News Media, and Chapter 8, Proactive Media
Coverage.

Write well in anything that a journalist may see. Good writing is
paramount to successful journalism in any platform. Thus the
“characteristics of news” discussed in Chapter 1 serve both the journalist,
who is determining what to cover, and the environmental advocate, who is
trying to persuade the journalist and her or his editor to cover a story,
even in the new media world. Refer back to Chapter 1, Mass Media 101.

Try to find a human-interest link or other “hook.” Media
professionals work in a for-profit world. As discussed in earlier chapters,
soliciting audience is even more essential to success for all media platforms
in this changing media landscape. Day-to-day relevance is crucial in
seeking regular, meaningful coverage. You should be prepared to help
235
See They Walk the Line: Top environment reporters talk about journalism vs. activism ,
http://www.grist.org/comments/soapbox/2006/08/24/reporters/ (last visited Dec. 19, 2008).
David LaFontaine & Taylor Elmore, Technological changes make core journalistic values
more
important,
http://www.wkconline.org/index.php/seminar_showcase/politicsandtv_2005_story/technological_c
hanges_make_core_journalistic_values_even_more_important/
(last
visited
Dec.
19,
2008).(“Whatever the changes in media by which news is delivered to the public, the
fundamentals of serious journalism remain the same.”).
236
even
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 32 of 34
provide context for coverage with some sort of “hook.” Refer back to
Chapters 7 and 8.

Know your audience, and be prepared to provide context and
sometimes educate. Understanding the characteristics of journalism
professionals will help you plan advocacy in any platform. Many seasoned
environmental journalists will be looking to see how your story fits in the
larger “arc” of environmental coverage and will have a sense of where to
go for background beyond those areas you consider. On the other hand,
those journalists newer to the beat, not familiar with your particular
environmental issue, or temporarily assigned to an environmental story
may need quick, helpful exposure to the subject. You may need to be
prepared to provide accessible background information and help whatever
the experience level. Refer back to Chapters 2, The People Behind the
News Media, and 8.

Use visuals. As discussed in Chapter 8, “visuals” may be even more
important in the changing landscape media. Internet sites rely on pictures
and, increasingly, videos to draw visitors and to provide links to other
sources. More and more newspaper Internet sites and even radio sites
provide video links. Thus you should be prepared to provide visuals
(especially links to non-advocacy sources). Refer back to Chapters 7 and 8.

Be prepared to help synthesize and focus the science. As discussed
in Chapter 6, The Role of Environmental Science in the News Process,
journalists are aware of the daunting complexity of science underlying
many environmental law and policy news stories. You may need to be
prepared to provide sources and analogies that “demystify” the process.
Refer back to Chapter 6.

Be prepared to help synthesize and focus the law. As discussed in
Chapter 3, The History of Environmental Law, the History of Environmental
Reporting and How They Intersect, journalists may need to be brought up
to speed on intricacies of the law. You may need to be prepared to provide
links and basic lessons as appropriate. Refer back to Chapter 3.

Be aware of what is “out there” on your subject. The job of a
journalist is to research, distill, and present a balanced story. To make sure
your story is told in the best light, you need to know what the journalist
may find when researching. While you can (and should) use search
engines like Google, you also should avail yourself of other tools, such as
government information and other public records. Refer back to Chapter 6,
FOIA and Other Government Information Avenues in the Environmental
and Media Context.

Be cognizant of potential ethical issues. In addition to being familiar
with any applicable Rules of Professional Conduct that may apply to
lawyers interacting with the media, be aware of the special ethical
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 33 of 34
obligations that apply to journalists. New media platforms may create new
(or recasted) ethical) challenges. Refer back to Chapter 9, The Ethics of
Working with the Media
VI.

Be available. The move to 24-hour coverage and Internet news means
that many journalists are not functioning under traditional deadlines.
Reaching out to journalists means you will need to make yourself available
via traditional, and perhaps non-traditional, means (cell phone, instant
messaging, text messaging, etc.). Refer back to earlier parts of this
chapter.

Be flexible. Journalists themselves are struggling to adapt to this
changing media landscape. Be aware that flexibility can serve you and your
clients well when working with journalists today.
Conclusion
Despite the new and ever-changing media landscape, journalism is far from a
dying profession.237 Mass media will continue to serve as the conduit for most
news to the public. As a 2007 Pew Research Center for The People and The Press
survey of journalists nationwide concluded: “[m]ost of the news professionals
surveyed say that even in this era of online news, journalists still fulfill their
traditional role as the ‘gatekeepers’ of news and information. Majorities of
national (64%), local (63%) and Internet journalists (58%) believe that
journalists still serve as information gatekeepers—and those who express this
opinion overwhelmingly see this as a good thing.”238
But the mode of delivery and the framework are shifting—perhaps to the
advantage of the environmental advocate. As the American Press Institute’s 2008
report Newspaper Next 2.0: Making the Leap Beyond “Newspaper Companies”
describes the future of newspaper companies, “in concept it could become a new
kind of local information and connection utility. As such, it would serve a wide
range of local information and connection needs for consumers and businesses,
using a wide range of products, technologies and platforms. It would be part
multimedia news, information and knowledge provider, part community
connection and interaction platform, part commerce enabler, part multimedia
marketing communications company.”239 Providing direct links and employing
237
Christopher Connell, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Forum on the Future of Journalism
Education, JOURNALISM’S CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE: A CHALLENGE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION (2006),
available at http://www.carnegie.org/pdf/journalism_crisis/journ_crisis_full.pdf
Pew Research Center for The People and The Press, The Web: Alarming, Appealing and a
Challenge to Journalistic Values—Financial Woes Now Overshadow All Other Concerns for
Journalists,
Mar.
17,
2008,
238
http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2008/Journalist%20report%202008.pdf (last visited Dec.
22, 2008).
239
AMERICAN PRESS INSTITUTE, NEWSPAPER NEXT 2.0: MAKING THE LEAP BEYOND ‘NEWSPAPER
COMPANIES’ (Feb. 2008) 5, available at http://www.newspapernext.org/Making_the_Leap.pdf.
Connolly and Duhé Chapter 10, Responding to the Media, January Draft (28 Jan.—DRAFT
SUBMITTED TO ABA/ELI), Page 34 of 34
modern technology is something that environmental law and policy advocates can
do—and in so doing can help the media in providing facts to the public.
But be aware that there is more information out there than ever before…and
people can get lost in it! As the first of the now-annual State of the News Media
reports by the Pew Center Project for Excellence in Journalism commented in
2004, “[q]uality news and information are more available than ever before, but in
greater amounts so are the trivial, the one-sided and the false. Some people will
likely become better informed than they once could have been as they drill down
to original sources. Other consumers may become steeped in the sensational and
diverting. Still others may move toward an older form of media consumption—a
journalism of affirmation—in which they seek news largely to confirm their
preconceived view of the world.”240 Environmental law and policy advocates will
need to work even harder to get appropriate coverage.
In this new media age, the environmental law and policy advocate definitely
has a role. As one scholar has remarked, the “former audience . . . [once] mere
consumers of news, . . . is learning how to get a better, timelier news report. It’s
also learning how to join the process of journalism, helping to create a massive
conversation and, in some cases, doing a better job than the professionals.”241
Again, keeping up will be hard work…but almost certainly worth it.
Speaking of the work you will have to undertake, we as authors must include
a closing caveat. In writing this chapter (and indeed the whole book) we
acknowledge there is no “sure thing” to guarantee reasonable coverage of your
environmental law and policy issue. Nor, unfortunately, can we craft a “one size
fits all” approach that will give you definite answers about every matter you may
face with respect to media coverage. What we hope you take away, nevertheless,
is one truth: advocates who seek to maximize thorough and balanced coverage of
environmental law and policy matters must acknowledge the shifting landscape
while applying some tried-and-true methods of journalistic norms. The story of
the laws and policy decisions that affect the environment are worthy of reporting.
Those working in the area must help the new media provide coverage that these
matters deserve and the public should know about.
Pew Center Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media 2004, 3-4,
http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.com/2004/execsum.pdf.
240
241
GILLMORE, WE THE MEDIA, supra note 109, at xxv.