At the Eurasian Media Forum last week, I was asked to talk about how with the rise of citizen media, the traditional press is no longer the opinion former it once was. Although from some perspectives this might be true, I didn’t totally agree.

Bloggers depend on MSM for news

The overwhelming majority of bloggers do absolutely no original reporting. They love to talk, but they depend on the mainstream press and its columnists to spark their discussions. Sure, bloggers have opinions; but to say that they are more influential than the mainstream press is an exaggeration.

Of the top 50 blogs on Technorati, about 10 comment on the national and international political and economic news for which the press is most consulted (and needed). They may claim fairly impressive traffic numbers (enough, in fact, that they could be considered mainstream, just like the traditional press on which they stuck the moniker), but much of their content starts with the editorial page of popular papers and cable newscasts and integrates links to various sources.

Blog readers realize that these blogs only provide the perspective of one person and tend to follow the links back to the original piece as well as other commentary to gain a global opinion. In this respect, their opinion is still influenced mostly by the MSM, the brand names that they’ve trusted for years.

This can be reflected in the percentage of people that actually read blogs. In the United States, awareness of blogs has grown considerably over the past 18 months but still, the number of Internet users that read blogs hovers around 30%. In the UK, about 70% of Internet users now know what a blog is, but still only about 10% of British netizens visit a blog more than once a month.

Blogs go places the MSM can’t

Still, despite the small numbers of blog readers, the potential is there. Some bloggers have proved very useful in forming opinions in ways that the MSM can’t.

For example, the Iraq War spawned perhaps the most famous case of such a blogger in Salam Pax, the pseudonym of an Iraqi who documented the run-up to and the actual of the effects of the War on the country. As an Iraqi citizen actually experiencing those effects, he provided commentary that the Western mainstream press couldn’t possibly produce. His voice became very influential, influential enough that the MSM realized his value and invited him to write for them.

I’ve read in China that there is one journalist/blogger who keeps a number of weblogs and scurries between IP addresses in two different cities. At times he is critical of the government so he keeps various blogs so that when one is shut down, he keeps up his commentary, which has gathered a significant following on others. (After searching for quite some time, I was unable to find the original article about this courageous man. If anyone had the link, please add it to the comments. Thank you.)

In Iran there are well over 100,000 bloggers. Not all are political but the blogosphere is being used as a means of motivating a more liberal younger generation against the present regime. An Iranian native known as Hoder, (also a Canadian citizen), gained much respect alerting the outside world to this vast blogosphere. In doing so, he also gives back to fellow Iranians with a blog in Persian. Not long ago, Hoder traveled to Israel to show what everyday life is like in the country in order to open up his countryman’s eyes to a nation the Iranian regime is committed to destroying.

MSM needs to reconnect with communities

Hoder, like many bloggers, provides a type of community service, something that many feel large, profit-grubbing news organizations have forgotten and which could contribute to the migration of more people to blogs than those organizations’ opinion pages. For instance, a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that 38% of American teens read blogs, a number that is sure to grow with their proliferation.

Traditional journalism is not going to disappear; society needs investigative journalism, journalists with access to governments and corporations, and professionals to gather and put information in perspective.

But the fact is, citizen media, and the plethora of opinion that comes with it, is not going to disappear either, and will more than likely evolve in leaps and bounds in the coming years. All of us can now become a permanent part of opinion forming.

News organizations must work symbiotically with this new and huge force. It has been suggested that news companies will become aggregators, finding the best information and commentary on the Web, be it from colleagues or blogs, and providing plenty of links to provide the audience with complete an image as possible. And they must do it sooner than later, while their brand names still embody the quality and respect that the public has given them for so many years, respect that could fade quickly if more scandals and financial worries arise.

Contrary to the belief of these organizations, linking to other sources, as long as they are worthy, will not cannibalize their content; it will only add value. Audiences will appreciate links to quality and will continue to come back to the same publication, which will thus continue to shape opinion. Ultimately, among the various points of view that news organizations will furnish, a hub of discussion will be created that will make democracy flourish.

Sources: Eurasian Media Forum, Pew Internet (teenagers), The Guardian