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The internet has been
peppered with hyperbole since the beginning so please
allow us to heap some more on. We are undergoing
seismic shifts almost daily and this is no more true
than with how we get local news. Traditional norms for
the flow of information from the local environment to
consolidators and ultimately to us is being turned on
its head and not a moment too soon. Let's take a look
at how local news is the next shoe to drop to the power
of the crowd. In this case, a local crowd.
One of the better books
on the social dimensions of recent internet evolution is
Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky. Combining the
anecdotal "Ahah!" moments of books like the Tipping
Point with higher level societal forces at work, we
recommend it to anyone looking to understand how the
internet is transforming how we interact socially. Some
of the processes described in the book are starting to
make themselves felt in the acquisition and
dissemination of local news content and the Zipper app
is just a tool in this transformation. Before we look
at where things will be, let's take a look at how they
were...for decades.
One of my favorite
quotes goes roughly like this, "Freedom of the press is
guaranteed as long as you own one". This was true for
roughly the last few centuries (if not longer). The
press, whether it's a large newspaper or your local
weekly has been the ultimate arbiter of what's fit to
print and these decisions, however clothed in an air of
non-partisan freedom, is made by people. People are
notoriously flawed at being impartial so our local news
has been equally flawed by default. This
control over what you
should read has taken a spurious turn over the last few
decades no matter political affinity you hold. For one
thing, the business of local news (yes, it's always been
a business and a very profitable one until late) has
both become consolidated and more corporate in
ownership. We're not implying that this has negatively
impacted the quality of local news but we're willing to
bet it hasn't improved it. With a more pronounced
profit motive, an air of sensationalism has also crept
(if not leapt) into the local news coverage. You're
more likely to see local curios and crime stories than
what's at the root of the crime reported on in detail.
That sells papers and they're in the business of selling
papers.
The other main issue
with the old world of local news is what ended up on the
editing floor (fairly outdated metaphor these days but
still cogent for old media buffs). There's only so much
real estate in a given local news paper and even less in
the much more expensive world of broadcast news
television. This means a great deal of the news that
comes into the filter of local news control never makes
it out. Perhaps those items were only important to a
segment of the population but that still leaves them
without the news they find important. There seems to be
a disconnect with this type of local news distribution
and the needs of those it's distributed to.
Bring in the Zipper
app. Now, the crowd not only becomes the on-location
reporter where ever a person may be, but the crowd
selects what news is important to him or her. All news
comes in and the individual self-filters according to
what's useful and important to that individual. This is
a seismic shift away from the top down approach of the
last century. Personally, we couldn't be more pleased.
We're getting pretty tired of the dancing cat article in
the living section. |
