Web 2.0: Not as liberating for journalists

I read a very interesting perspective on the evolution (almost extinction) of traditional journalism. It's a pretty harsh contrast to the excitement that technology and interconnectivity has added to my profession:

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The public is shaping news agendas as never before. Online editors can quickly see which stories "click" with readers. News risks becoming a "hit" parade, a top 10 list of most clicked items. How long before Australia gets its own version of Las Ultimas Noticias, Chile's most widely read newspaper? The paper, according to Knobel, has "a system where all clicks onto its website are recorded and displayed in the newsroom. The clicks — and the popular vote they represent — determine the print content of the newspaper. If a story gets many clicks, it will be followed up and similar stories will be written. If a story doesn't get enough clicks, it and its follow-ups are spiked".

Stories about climate change are a "hit" with readers now, but they weren't 10 years ago. News is not just what matters to me or you in this instant. As Tremayne writes: "Unless bloggers begin covering school board and city council meetings, major and not so major crimes, serious and not so serious accidents and fires, weather, issues of importance to the few and to the many and issues of little interest to themselves — all this on a daily basis — they will not provide the services now covered by the mainstream press."

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