Blogs vs. Mainstream Media
It’s certainly true that as the internet has continued to grow the line between blog and news has becoming more and more blurry. It has become much harder to dismiss blogs simply as unqualified imitators without the proper training as they continue to grow more and more in popularity. However, that does not mean that these issues with blogs and news have completely gone away. There still exists, at times, a distinct difference in tone as well as quality of reporting. Mainstream news outlets still feature a lot more fact checking and confirmations before a story can run while blogs are much more lenient about what can be published on their site.
This can be easily highlighted by comparing how a blog and a mainstream news outlet both covered the same story. First, look at the article “A Woman Told Her Boss About A Devastating Cancer Diagnosis. He Responded By Firing Her” published on the Huffington Post by Mollie Reilly. The first thing aspect that surely jumps out is the conversational nature of the headline. It is more or less just a sentence and there are very few news outlets that would use a headline that casual. The article goes on to tell the story of Carol Jumper who, after telling her boss, Dr. George Visnich, that she had been diagnosed with cancer, was fired from her job at the oral surgeon’s office. A picture of the hand written letter from Visnich went viral after it was shared online by one of Jumper’s friends on Facebook. After seeing the letter, people on social media were outraged and began creating fundraising movements for Jumper, including a Facebook group called “Bumper’s Buddies”, which has over 2,000 members.
Compare that to how this same story is covered in the article “Doctor caught in social media storm defends laying off employee with cancer” published on CNN by Morgan Windsor. While the Huffington Post’s article was clearly meant to instill outrage in its readership, this CNN article takes a much more objective approach. Instead this article makes it clear the only reason Visnich fired Jumper was so she could collect unemployment benefits and not worry about work while fighting cancer. He also assured her that her job would be waiting for her back at the office whenever she planned to return. This same information does appear in The Huffington Post article but it is restricted to about three sentence near the end of the article. Meanwhile, the CNN article leads with this information, getting a quote themselves from Visnich’s attorney detailing exactly why Jumper was fired. This article also states that Visnich has been receiving harassing phone calls and emails, something that the Huffington Post does not mention at all.
It’s very clear that the mainstream news version of the events in this case is much more concerned with being objective than the blog version. Blogs, in the case, are much more concerned about grabbing the reader’s attention with a sensation headline or a story that will cause an outrage in their readership, even if the truth of the matter is much less interesting.
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Podcasts
The internet has clearly changed the way we consume our news. People now live their lives much more on the go than they ever have before and that means that they may not always have time to read in-depth about currents events. Twitter and Facebook can give you a snapshot of what’s happening but looking for something that can deliver a lot of information in a short amount of time can be difficult. Podcasts have now emerged as an effective news sources that can be listened to in the car on the way to work or on public transportation or anywhere else where simply reading the news can be a hassle.
One podcast in particular that focuses on current events is NPR’s “Story of the Day.” A daily podcast about five minutes in length, “Story of the Day” focuses on one story and goes as in-depth as possible in that five minute run-time to give a good overview of what the story is and what it means to listener. What separates “Story of the Day” from other news podcasts is that it seems to try to take a more interesting and unique angle with its stories than other news programs. It’s not just a dry summary of the news story but instead looks at the news from an interesting perspective and intercuts all this with interviews pertaining to the topic. The most recent episode of the show covers the recent vote for Scottish Independence and more specifically, how the voting age has been lowered from 18 years old to 16 years old. Ari Sharpiro covers the story and much of the show is taken up by interviews with Scottish 16 year olds and asking them what being able to vote means to them. It’s an interesting take on the issue and an interesting way of communicating it with an audience. However, one criticism I would have on the format is that if a person had knew nothing about the Scottish independence issue itself, the show would not be very useful to them. Because the podcast is restricted by the 5 minute run-time, it’s hard for it to explore the issue in too much detail. There are certainly longer podcasts out there that can cover these stories in a more in-depth fashion but the appeal of something like “Story of the Day” is that is a bite sized looked at today’s news and expanding that into a longer, more involved show would mean less people could listen to it. The podcast also includes a link to a text based version of the story that provides a bit more detail but even then, it doesn’t provide all the information needed.
Still, podcasts are interesting way to follow the news and while not perfect, it’s an alternative that can be essential for a person in a certain situation. It gives a more complete view of the news than something like Twitter but saves the time of reading in-depth articles or tuning into the evening news.
