10 Kasım 2012 Cumartesi

How Newspapers Can Support Democracy (And Make Some Money)

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Image Source: DebbieReynolds.com









A reader of the Washington Post comments:

"What I don't like is the fact that News Papers across the country now require you to have a Facebook acct. in order to comment on an article in their paper. Where once an article may have gotten 80 comments, now are lucky to get 5 or 6. People just do not want their full name published in the News Paper, for many, many reasons. It doesn't sit well with me that my local Paper is trying to strong arm me into joining Facebook."


And this, ladies and gentlement, is where newspapers are shooting themselves in the foot.

I can tell the newspapers how to be relevant again-----they're all boo-hooing over how the Net is taking away readership, and dreaming up paywall schemes a la L.A. Times and Wall Street Journal. But seriously------listen up, media whores, because I do have the answer. Newspaper conversations are VERY important. People of note read those articles, and they DO read the comments and conversations connected to each article.

What I can't figure out is why the newspaper honchos haven't figured out just how important this is. They're essentially hosting live community conversations. Instead of paywalls, what they need to do is give credit for commenting. If you comment or contribute, you don't have to pay. If you're just going to read, then you pay---or are advertised to. I'm not a big fan of paying for online content and the advertising model will probably work better, not to mention be more ethically sound.

Here's what the newspapers need to do---they need to realize they are broadcasters. Newspaper people seem to think they are not broadcasters. Right? But now in the age of "new media" (which is really old media via new machines) ---the lines are blurred. It's all conversation. Conversation!!! And newspapers are sitting on a pot of gold, and don't have a friggin clue!!! They are the ones who do the journalism, they are the ones who pay reporters to go out and gumshoe it up so we can have something to read about. Broadcasters are great with the stand-up-at-the-scene-of-breaking-news business. But people turn to newspapers and other "print" media for serious context, investigation and analysis. They do now and they always will. And with the Net, this is morphing into broadcasting.

Newspapers could hook up with *local* bloggers or independent reporter-wannabes. (Free content.) They could engage City Council people and have entire sections devoted to public feedback. There could be block-by-block places for neighbors to interact in any given town, real community forums.

Imagine a City Council section in the L.A. Times where Mr. Councilman or Ms. Councilwoman would have to interact with the community and answer questions. In this day and age, and especially in this town where fifteen councilpeople are supposed to represent four million souls, (yeah, right) not only would this be a great step forward for representative government, but think of the advertising dough that could be rolling out if this happened. I'd go see a page where councilpeople would have to interact with viewers who are also interacting with each other. I'd go look at that in a heartbeat!!

But instead, what we have are articles where people log on and look, the usual boneheads chime in, and the people supposedly representing them peek at the articles secretly to measure public opinion (because you KNOW they are reading these comments) and never say a word.

I'm not a huge fan of San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry, but I will say this for him: he logs on to the San Bernardino Sun site and ANSWERS COMMENTS!!! I was absolutely shocked when I noticed this some time ago. I even had a conversation with Supervisor Derry myself!!! I don't think we agreed, but it was civil--he was civil--I was civil (I think) and he wasn't afraid to put his name up there in front of the world and have the conversation right there on the public bulletin board in front of the world. EVERYONE should be doing this. And when you consider that state government officials could be required to do the same thing, when you consider that federal officials could also be required to interact this way-----well, holy shit. The computer is supposed to connect us all, but what's actually happening is everyone's being all spooky about it, going anonymous (which should still be a right) or lurking and scheming and fuming and spying and stalking. And the papers are alienating people with ads that move, make noise, pop up in your face or over text without giving an option to disappear them....not a winner.

Doesn't have to be that way!!

And if there's money to be made, why SHOULD it be that way???

Especially if it makes conversations happen which ought to happen. Hello, L.A. broke an 1898 heat record today!! Can we talk about global warming? L.A. City Council wants to raise parking fines again. Let's get those knuckleheads up in front of the public for once ---the entire public--and put their money where their sorry mouths are. Explain to me, Mr. Councilman, why you think it's a good idea to fill a 200 million dollar hole with one of the most regressive taxes on the planet?

And could someone explain to me--please---why parking and traffic fines are not proportional to income? It's all computerized! If the guy with the BMW SUV is roaring along cutting off little smart cars, and he makes three mil a year, he ought to get a much higher fine than, say, the starving student in the beater who didn't see the sign that said no right turn, because the sign was placed in a bad spot behind a bush. Or whatever.

I mean, five hundred dollar tickets will not really harm any of the (many) millionaires in this joint. But it will really harm, and punish, the single mother who's trying to feed her kids and buy them schoolbooks.

And if we had a place online where representatives were required to interact with the public, then maybe someone could put that idea out there.




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