"Use of social media and electronic media obviously means that anybody with a laptop, anybody with a PDA, is a journalist," says Roger Simon, Politico's chief political columnist and another newcomer to news-by-tweet.
...
"I think the pluses of technology are obvious. What it allows you to do is layer the coverage in a way that allows voters to drill down and see what they want to," says Kathy Kiely, managing editor of politics at National Journal. She is pleased that news outlets can link to documents and audio and video of candidates. "I'm a big believer in the power of words, but there's nothing like actually hearing the voice of a candidate, the timbre, how they're saying something.
"The downside – and this is what we really have to be cautious about – is becoming so enamored of the here and now that we forget to put things in perspective." ...
Adds Kiely: "The ubiquitous YouTubization of campaigns means that everyone is a lot more guarded than they used to be."
...
Candidates also utilize new-media tools as a means to defend themselves. With the help of electronic alerts, they have near-immediate access to almost everything that is written about their campaigns. This allows aides to lobby writers to quickly change what they don't like.
...
"We all follow the candidates on Twitter," USA Today's [Susan] Page says. "Twitter for me has replaced watching the wires. It's a faster way to find out what's happening...
...
"There are fewer people observing these candidates up close and more people writing about them from afar. There are a lot more people opining, blogging, tweeting, but not out there looking at candidates face to face," says [Jeff] Zeleny of the New York Times, one of the papers that still assigns reporters to trail candidates. "That's not a great trend."
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Social Media, Technology, and Campaign Coverage
At The American Journalism Review, Jodi Enda writes of how social media and other technologies are changing how reporters cover the 2012 campaign:
