Media Scholar Tells Howard Kurtz 'Huffington Post's a Bigger Threat to Journalism Than Google'
University of Virginia media professor Siva Vaidhyanathan on Sunday said the Huffington Post is a bigger threat to journalism than Google.
Such occurred during a discussion about the internet behemoth on CNN's "Reliable Sources" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: Does Google help or hurt news organizations that actually pay reporters? You don't have to, if you're not so inclined, go to "The New York Times" Web site or CNN.com. You can search for the one thing on the one story whether it's Egypt or the Wisconsin budget battle, and you can find it through Google.
Does that hurt news organizations?
SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN, PROFESSOR OF MEDIA STUDIES, UVA: I think, ultimately, that sort of environment helps both citizens and news organizations in the long term, largely because there's certain organizations -- particular news organizations that will do well in this environment are those that choose to understand Google. So look at how organizations like "Huffington Post" have excelled. Even "The New York Times" have excelled in terms of getting Web readership since search engines, Google in particular, became the dominant way we find information.
Those organizations have learned to master the environment. Now, that has positive and negative effects.
KURTZ: By which you mean, for those who are not computer savvy, they have learned to use certain phrases, keywords, headlines that will attract, that will lift them up in the Google rankings, and attract traffic, which is how they sell advertising.
VAIDHYANATHAN: And the bad way of looking at that is that "Huffington Post" is gaming the system. The good way is "Huffington Post" has figured out a model to attract a lot of attention.
Of course, I think the biggest threat in journalism is actually "Huffington Post," because it's actually taking and attracting attention for its advertisers and repositioning the work done by local news organizations. That 's a very different environment.
KURTZ: So Arianna is a threat to us all?
VAIDHYANATHAN: I think "The Huffington Post" is a much stronger threat to local journalism and to independent journalism organizations than Google is. Google actually does nothing but help, as far as I can see.
KURTZ: Well, maybe that's why AOL paid $350 million for "The Huffington Post."
Indeed. What Siva didn't mention was another difference between Google and HuffPo is that the internet behemoth pays its employees.
It goes without saying that a huge threat to professional journalism today is Huffington's model of not compensating many of its contributors.
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Comments
ZsaZsa....
Submitted by adamsmith on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 3:39pm.
ZsaZsa is a communist pig. She should take her money and move back to Greece. Commies are big over there.....
A bigger threat to journalism?
Submitted by Ashrak on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 4:00pm.
Or, a bigger threat to "Establishment journalism's" control over information as a means of not only filtering information toward an indeological bent (and election steering as a result) but also getting rich in the process?
What we are seeing is a market searching for something not in large supply. "Proessional journalism" has been damaged by the Establsihment media's liberal bias that people are looking elsewhere for their information. The interaction with news sites, in the form of comments sections, is also driving that change. People are really starting to catch on to this model of being able to counter what is being presented.
Professional Journalism, and the ability to make a good profit from it, isn't harmed by those who do it for fun or out of a heartfelt notion that something is very wrong in this country. It is harmed by far too many of those within that profession abusing their positions and using them as a means to skew the news. And that problem is far older than I.
I don't think the answer is to point at anything else besides those who have stained, and possibly destroyed, mainstream media. I think the answer is to clarify the line that is supposed to exist between news and opinion pages and to market and promote that stark change.
Yes a portion of people will go where they can hear and read what they want to hear and read. But the vast majority of people want the truth more than anything else, especially from those who claim to be professional journalists. The information age isupon us and there is no stopping it now (well short of several EMP detonations anyway) and the comeptition is going to be fierce.
Establishment media insiders are just going to have to accept that they are not the only game in town anymore and they are going to have to play by the rules rather than make them up as they go along.
you are correct...
Submitted by ds7 on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 6:19pm.
i have been removed from comment sites run by local newspapers for just pointing out that the way they're reporting the "news" is nothing short of propaganda. we are constantly bombarded with pro liberal/democrat, pro gay and pro illegal immigation stories.
if a crime is committed by an illegal, the mexican sounding name is no-where to be found in the story or description of the perp...if it they can be tied to any conservative organization or christian church it will be the headline.
the difference between the way the media has reported on the tea party versus the union backed mobs is eye-opening to many newcomers. now we are seeing that even the cops are offering "protections" to one group of protestors they are more sympathetic towards (again, unions) than others.
push back, every chance you get...
wandering in the wilderness
Submitted by MidAmerica on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 4:33pm.
One of the things that is happening is that the country is becoming less informed. The overwhelming majority of people are not searching google or perusing huffpo. They are not reading newspapers and more and more are not watching evening news or reading news magazines. The country is fast becoming a nation of current events illiterates. Young people have a poor grasp of history and know even less than adults about the events of the day or what they mean.
Not a good recipe for self-government when people become easy targets for emotionalism, sensationalism, and demagoguery.
Hardly.
Submitted by Tenebrous on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 7:19pm.
When anyone can type terms into Google and search their hearts out, I find it hard to believe that suddenly people are becoming unaware of current events.
Visions and Principles blog
you can lead a horse to water
Submitted by MidAmerica on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 9:17pm.
Just because they can doesn't mean they are.
All of us here live in a news bubble and presume most people are like us. Not so. We are a minority.
The real problem...
Submitted by Anon150 on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 4:53pm.
...is that the 'old' media cannot figure out how to maintain their 'business-as-usual' model in the face of the internet.Ownership of printing presses, once a prohibitive expense, has been eliminated by online techniques and software. Now, it costs little or nothing to 'print' and embellish stories with color images, and (gasp!) anyone can do it.
Freedom!
The same goes for the distribution system that used to shift tons of dead-tree copy every day. Don't need it anymore.
TV? Their pathetically thin productions can't even scratch the surface of world news, and never did a good job with the local stuff. The internet-based operations have infinite stringers with cameras and are turning out an acceptable product that is completely lacking in time-robbing commercials.
This has broken the monopoly that the MSM used to have, and they would like nothing better than to force, by deception, propaganda, lies, whining and even government protection, their 'traditional place' in American information dissemination.
But, the cat's out of the bag, and the old model won't work anymore. The buggy whip makers moved on, and the MSM will have to, too.
Or starve.
The small news mammals are doing just fine, thanks, and the dinosaurs are simply unable to adapt.
Don't expect them to go quietly or with a shred of dignity, though.
They are both tools of the
Submitted by Miss_Me_Yet on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 8:13pm.
They are both tools of the George Soros " Kill America " campaign, while at the same time both are staffed, top to bottom with Obama regime, not so covert, foot soldiers in Barack's radical bomb thrower army, not quite as big, trained or well armed as the Armed Forces of the United States of America, though just as deadly in their own right.
Liberals ... we can't live with them, they couldn't survive without us ...
Look behind the curtain
Submitted by Huapakechi on Mon, 02/28/2011 - 10:32am.
What they fail to address is the fact that utilizing a giant like google leaves one to peruse ONLY the reports put forth and ranked by google, all carefully weighted to guide the reader's opinion.