Consumer-Generated Media – A Trend to Reckon With in the Internet Age
A colleague of ours in Buffalo, NY has observed something extraordinary going on in his local media market. Comments by consumers — especially comments they’ve posted on media blogs — are having an unprecedented effect on what the newspapers and especially Buffalo’s three local TV news stations are choosing to cover.
The good news is that the Internet is allowing the public to directly feed the dominant mainstream media with story ideas and tips, and that editors and reporters are willing to take public concerns so seriously.
The bad news is that consumer tips may not be properly vetted or verified. The tipsters may have an ax to grind or dishonest intentions. No matter. When their comments appear online, they take on a greater semblance of credibility than an ominous phone call to the consumer desk. Authoritative reporters wind up pursuing leads they would not have pursued in the past, potentially damaging reputations in the process.
The fact that we’re talking about a heartland marketplace like Buffalo only adds to the importance of a trend that is nonetheless evident everywhere. Consumer-generated coverage migrates from the Web and back into the land of mainstream media in a vast cross-pollinating process that is impossible to stop and difficult to manage.
Among other effects, time pressures are ratcheted up in the instantaneous world of the blogosphere. Being the first or getting on a story early is more important than ever, and truth and fairness are more vulnerable as a result. For anyone in the public eye, including companies that depend on consumer good will for their survival, the lesson is…Be aware and beware.
As New York Times journalist Tom Friedman has put it, the whole world really is watching. Corporate communicators must now be prepared for unfair and even downright crank coverage, with a thinner and thinner line between the blogosphere and “traditional media” — not as a deviation from the norm, but as an increasingly constant price of doing business in a mass market.
