September 21, 2008

What Online journalists love

Today, people in Hong Kong protested, because they have these "Mini-truts" of Lehman Brothers. Well, they are not worth the paper, that this mans holds in his hand. Question is: In what do we trust? There is so much virtual story around us. Like the one story about Uinted Airlines. A paper wrote, UAL is close to chapter 11. The stock dropped 70 % in minutes. Until it was found, that the article was three years old and had been published again online by coincedence. Google and Bloomberg had grabbed the content and sent UAL south. We believe in the work of machines, maybe far to much. Two weeks ago, I joined a conversation about the new role of PR-Agencies in the new media world. Part of the conversation was, how to make it into the online news. Main findings: The direct contact between Agency and journalist is still important. But the changes include:
  • Speed (the more speed you come up with news, the more likely you are in the news)
  • multimedia enrichment (Slideshows, video content. newssites love this stuff)
  • New numbers: Watch out for the "most read" buttons on websites. Then you know, what topics will make it into the media. Or you simply make a context in your PR-letter to those features.
  • Profession: the journlistic criteria and control mechanism still count, like in the old days, but with integration of online-sources, it's a walk on the thin border line. Examples given on that OTS-day: A User-photo of Madonna visiting an Alpine skiing ressort. The photo showed Madonna in a surrounding like the Alps. One medium took the story, the agencies picked up, it turned out to be fake. We will meet more of this. (in German) http://www.ots-blog.at/events/otsconnect-die-zweite/

Keine Kommentare: