Hurricane's effect on U.S. media

The BBC questions whether the storm and its aftermath have perhaps "saved" the American media, and there is some merit to the question (and their implicit "yes" answer).

Two forces have negatively affected the media recently: Blogging has reduce credibility and visibility, while increased corporate ownership has reduced credibility because public-service journalism is arguably less profitable and might even embarrass sponsors or owners.

The hurricane's effects have given the media a chance to shake off some of these stigmas.

First, while some bloggers in the affected area got powerful messages out, most did not have the electricity to do so. This allowed the media to do what has been somewhat rare these days: actually break news.

Second, the media jumped up into its watchdog/public-service role by reporting on government deficiencies, particularly those of the federal government.

This CNN article is a surprisingly good presentation of FEMA head Michael Brown's lack of awareness of the situation.

One unfortunate, yet inevitable, note about print journalism in this situation is that online media outshined print once again. We've seen 24-hour updates as they happen, breathtaking photo slide shows, and first-person blog entries from reporters on the scene that make evident the horror the reporter is experiencing.

And these blog entries aren't the typical mainstream media pompous "ooh, here we are behind the scenes" garbage that no one cares about - usually these "blogs" are just an poor attempts to mimic real blogs.

But recently, because of the media's access and efforts, they've contained actual news.

Also, the Times-Picayune hasn't printed a paper edition since the storm, and no one has probably missed it. Except, of course, the people without electricity who would like to know the news... But the Picayune has done a fine job with its online-only work.

The Picayune wrote a hell of an editorial, with slams such as this:

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, [FEMA Director Michael Brown] said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Brown is the guy who clearly got his job because of political connections, not experience -- He hadn't done any real work in emergencies, but his college roommate ran Bush's campaign. I know this happens in both parties, but still.

Amazing.

Anyway, of course print journalism is still important, and I love sitting down with a paper as much as the next fella, but online news took care of business last week.

And they did it better than the bloggers, so that means that those of us in journalism will still have jobs, at least for a while.