It used to be that journalists and reporters in main stream media (news papers, radio, and television) were the main sources of news that affected so many of us. That’s not the case anymore. Chris Brogan talks about how bloggers and others are also getting the news out these days.Yesterday he went to a Panasonic press conference and was tweeting about it as it happened.
There was lots of news from the event. I’m sure it was covered very well by people like Engadget. What I liked, however, was that we, the bloggers, had the scoop on the mainstream press by who knows how long, and further (and this is the super cool part to me), I really loved that I had conversation coming back to me almost immediately about what I was posting.
During the massive pet food recall in 2007, I learned first hand how bloggers can make a difference in reporting news. After receiving emails through my website, PetsitUSA.com, from people asking what they should feed their pets I posted a short list at of food that had not been recalled. Literally overnight, I was bombarded with more emails from anxious pet owners and found myself contacting pet food companies to get answers about their food. As the list of recalled foods grew so did the list on my blog, which was eventually moved to it’s own website, The Pet Food List.
I quickly found myself one of a handful of bloggers who gained a lot of attention for the news we were putting out. Along with Pet Connection, Pet Food Tracker, Itchmo, and a couple others I blogged extensively about the recalls. With the number of dead pets rising, all of us wanted to do what we could to help frightened pet owners. Because of our determination (and obsession!) we scooped the mainstream media repeatedly. In fact, we quite often had the information out there for pet owners before the pet food companies themselves added the information to their own websites, and almost always before the FDA published the recalls.
Bloggers and those who use other social media tools are definitely changing the way we report, and even how we view the news. It’s no longer all about getting news from a sterile, good looking, middle-aged white guy on the evening news!
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I don’t miss the middle-aged white guy one bit either. Don’t watch much news on t.v. at all anymore. Love to go to HuffingtonPost.com though.