jeffc

I remember on the day before Thanksgiving, I was in my office working on a few blog posts when I looked at my notebook and noticed the large number of tweets that were appearing discussing the attacks that were taking place in Mumbai. A couple of people sent links out on Twitter of various live video streams covering the event, including one source which was streaming live from an local India news station. Later, I watched some mainstream news coverage through the likes of CNN.

NDTV has a great story which details the use of Twitter and live blogging during the attacks on Mumbai. According to NDTV, when the initial reports began to come in via Twitter, the tweets were filled with detailed information. However, once the attack was in full swing, there was so much information to digest, you couldn’t tell which tweets were true and which were false.

The title of the article asks, is live blogging the future of media? Using the attacks on Mumbai as an example, live blogging still has a long way to go. One of the biggest problems with live blogging is that, readers ultimately have to take everything they hear on a social network with a grain of salt. In terms of mainstream media, they become relevant in the fact that they have the time, resources, and man power to ensure a greater degree of accuracy. NDTV makes a great point in that, as time went on, live bloggers ended up making the story more confusing.

To sum things up, NDTV says it better than I ever could regarding mainstream medias relevance when compared to live blogging or social networks:

So, what twitter has done is to provide instant information to millions. No one doubts the fact that it’s one of the best things to have happened to the internet. But as Cellan Jones says, that what it doesn’t do is, tell us what is true, and what isn’t. That makes the work of mainstream media outlets and professional reporters all the more relevant.

What do you think? Is mainstream media still relevant or has live blogging and the likes of Twitter replaced the mainstream media?

An interesting article on the Valley Advocate website based out of Massachusetts caught my interest today. The article highlights an individual who had reached the peak of their blogging output. This individual got together with another local blogger to discuss the prospects of working together rather than working alone. An informal network developed and after reaching out to even more local bloggers, a collaborative website was created which became a clearinghouse of writing by local bloggers.

The article was interesting for a few reasons. The first is that, it reminded me that if you don’t have a unique voice or the time of day to pour into your niche, you should really think about collaborating with others. I mean, lets take a moment to look at the ever increasingly irrelevant Technorati top 100 and notice how many of those websites are multi-authored blogs. Some of the sites produce 10-30 individual posts per day. Unless you have the assistance of automation, no individual will be able to compete with that kind of output. Now don’t get me wrong, I and many others believe in quality over quantity, but when you have multiple authors who can concentrate on delivering that quality with each post rather than producing 100 short, ill-informed posts, you end up having some of the ingredients needed to have a very successful site. Not to mention a great source of traffic that keeps coming back to check out the latest post.

The last part of the article contains a block of text which ignited a firestorm of thoughts.

The strength of [PVC], I think, is that everybody is a very independent voice,” Dobbs says. “I think what blogging can do is help revitalize interest in local news and local events. Good local blogging can allow people to rediscover stuff.”

What a great perspective. I know that I routinely read the content on Cleveland.com which is a website strictly for those who live in and around the Cleveland, Ohio area. Within their local sections, I usually get a feel for the nooks and crannies of the city thanks to local bloggers. In fact, I discovered an awesome Italian eatery not to far away from me thanks to a local blogger. The point is, going local with your blog has many benefits that can not be matched by going national or international. By going local, you can become an authority of that specific location. You can strike advertising deals with local companies. You can use the blog as a tool to network locally which could have national or international benefits.

Just to see what sort of reaction I would get, I put the call out to those who follow me on Twitter (jeffr0) to describe to me in 140 characters or less a reason why those blogging on local things, places, and events is a good thing. Here is what they had to say:

paulorear @jeffr0 : A local blog about local stuff can be a great resource for people visiting that location, and Goggling for info pre-visit.

sierrakoch @jeffr0 Gets locals information someplace other than the Newspaper or News. It gives a different spin on events.

JoshBudde @jeffr0 Keep you up to date on what’s happening near you and in your community.

zgirlie @jeffr0 I’m in a small town and I totally love to hear about stuff in the local cities, etc. and 2) if you live somewhere and move, you can stay connected to those in your home state.

cravenjade @jeffr0 I have a local blog! Targeted audience + targeted advertisers. Covers the tourist things that other online publications don’t

Special thanks to those of you who sent me replies on Twitter.

We have covered quite a few positive aspects of having a local blog discussing local topics. However, can you tell me if there are any negative aspects of blogging locally? I’d also like for you to chime in and tell me some more benefits of doing things locally versus across a wide spectrum.

This week, Anderson Analytics’ GenX2Z released partial findings from their 2009 US college Student report. According to their findings, Facebook remained the number one website this year overtaking MySpace in 2007. MySpace finds themselves in fourth place after Google and Yahoo! Among the top ten sites, three new ones have been included (LiveJournal, Amazon, CNN).

The study finds that the popularity of blogging amongst Gen Y is largely attributed to college women who are three times more likely than males to maintain a blog. Also worthy of noting is that students are four times more likely to blog. In terms of Social Networking Services, it is no surprise that Facebook leads the pack with over 80 percent of the respondents use the service compared to 40% for MySpace. Looks like the wow factor of MySpace with college students in gone.

Information about the study: Anderson Analytics – GenX2Z College Study is conducted every year in the Fall semester among 1,000 US college students. All participants have confirmed .edu emails. Sample provides statistics with a +/-3.1% confidence interval at the 95% confidence level.