This is the kind of stuff that I've been saying all along. I don't know anyone my age, or remotely close to my age that still reads newspapers (unless we have to for work). PR agencies (large and small) and professionals should really start focusing on new media (web 2.0).


Anti-Clinton Video on YouTube Proves that the Web is More Than a News Outlet—It Is Now a Source of News

The anti-Hillary Clinton video posted last week on YouTube demonstrated the speed and power of the Web as it quickly jumped from the Internet to cable news and network broadcasts such as NBC's "Today" and "CBS Evening News."
As a result, the video, which portrayed Clinton as a dictatorial character out of Orwell's 1984 became one of last week's most-discussed stories, USA Today reports.

It also cost its author his job. Posted anonymously, the video drew nearly two million views on YouTube. Its creator resigned when he was about to be outed as an employee of a digital consulting firm that worked for Barack Obama. The candidate's campaign denied any part in the video. Clinton also downplayed its impact, reports USAT writer Peter Johnson.

But media experts say that the way "Hillary 1984" made its way into the national discussion serves as a cautionary tale for traditional news outlets, which risk spreading material that may be damaging or untrue to wider audiences—all for the sake of staying current with the Web. Politico.com's misreporting of John Edwards' campaign plans last week is another example of this phenomenon.

On the Web, "you essentially have a public wall where anybody can put up a billboard and say anything," says Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "And if the wall attracts a crowd, mainstream media write about it."

That presents challenges for the media, he says: "If something is out there and having an impact, you probably have a responsibility to report it. But you have no less a responsibility to tell me if it's believable or not."

Because of the sensation the Clinton video caused on the Web, mainstream news outlets aired stories about the phenomenon of political attack Web videos. "We wound up giving more exposure to the video than it ever would have gotten on the Web," CBS News vice president Paul Friedman told Johnson. "I don't know how to get around it. It comes down to how much can we still exercise our traditional role of being a gatekeeper on what's fair, decent, factual and accurate—and what isn't."

Bob Steele, who teaches ethics at the Poynter Institute, says that speed has always been an important factor in journalism. Now, with Web outlets churning out stories and videos that quickly gain traction across the Net, mainstream news needs to exercise great caution when deciding to pass that fare along. "The Edwards story speaks loudly to how fast those values can get lost in a hurry," Steele says. "It does no good to be first and wrong. Whether they are at cable news networks or at mainstream newspapers or news blogs, journalists still have an obligation for accuracy and fairness."

Article from Bulldog Reporter's "Daily Dog"