If all local newspapers were gone, could bloggers fill the void?

I came across this new report  — The New News — rather randomly today. It explores the changing media landscape specifically within the context of the Chicago area. Namely, the report discusses the future of journalism as a policy issue –proclaiming that despite the rapid rise in Web 2.0 media, platforms like blogs and Facebook are not uniquely poised to usurp true investigative journalism that focuses on local news.

The report makes several valid arguments for the need to preserve traditional forms of  journalism. One of the primary quotes in the study says:

“There’s no reason to assume that online news publications will do a better job of local news coverage than their counterparts in print and broadcast.”

This idea stems from something that is consistently reinforced in the findings: most bloggers simply synthesize information obtained from primary news sources, such as the local paper.

While revenues at papers across the nation are falling, it seems as though some citizen journalists would have little to thrive on if newspapers across the nation suddenly came undone all at once. I’ll agree on this point. 100 percent.

In an effort to highlight blogs and Web sites that are truly changing the way Chicagoans receive their news (meaning that these blogs, for the most part, have original content that goes beyond simply regurgitating local news stories, or aggregate news in a truly innovative way, perhaps helping to fill a void that does or may soon exist in the locally-based traditional media market), the study ranks the top 6o emergencing news sources online in the area. In case you’re curious, Chi Town Daily News tops the list.

There’s much more to share, but long story short, the study is definitely worth a read, or at least a skim.

~ by laurawoods on June 11, 2009.