Our blog in a changing media landscape
Two recent Chronicle stories have me wondering about the future of our modest adventure in web journalism here at SfSchools:
I certainly hope not.
The blog and the sfschools list provide what I think is an interesting and useful adjunct to traditional print journalism. We provide an outlet for stories that would not make the paper or the evening news. We provide a place for parents, educators, and activists to keep track of school relates stories. We are listed on and getting traffic from outside.in, a site aggregates blog and other web media with local content and provides a "way to discover the people, places, and conversations in your community." We try to keep up with the changing times.
But we are not professionals. We do not have the same resources that a newspaper reporter has. And, no, even if we were to run ads on this site it would not generate any significant income. It's hard for me to imagine how the blog media can really fill the gaps forming by shrinking newspaper media.
- Chronicle to cut 25% of jobs in newsroom
- Outsourcing to India for reporters
Web site to cover Pasadena council news from overseas
I certainly hope not.
The blog and the sfschools list provide what I think is an interesting and useful adjunct to traditional print journalism. We provide an outlet for stories that would not make the paper or the evening news. We provide a place for parents, educators, and activists to keep track of school relates stories. We are listed on and getting traffic from outside.in, a site aggregates blog and other web media with local content and provides a "way to discover the people, places, and conversations in your community." We try to keep up with the changing times.
But we are not professionals. We do not have the same resources that a newspaper reporter has. And, no, even if we were to run ads on this site it would not generate any significant income. It's hard for me to imagine how the blog media can really fill the gaps forming by shrinking newspaper media.
Labels: School Board Notes, SFUSD Politics
1 Comments:
As a veteran newsroom journalist and a Chronicle wife (so the cuts potentially impact our family!), obviously I have an opinion on this -- but no answer.
As everyone knows, we can all read news free online, so why pay for it? Yet the major news stories we read online were generated by professionals doing their paid jobs.
Local activist Kim Knox has provided a valuable service with her tireless unpaid attendance at every possible school board and committee meeting, plus myriad other school events. She reports on far more meetings than School Board Notes can cover, let alone any dead-trees newspapers. The "dis" here (and I apologize for criticizing someone doing this as a volunteer) is that Kim is often inaccurate. In her defense, it's really hard to understand some of these complex issues; usually that's the problem.
Still, I eagerly read Kim's accounts, allowing for the likelihood that what I'm reading is not entirely reliable. At least I have an idea what happened at the meeting or event.
So that may sum up the situation -- tireless unpaid news provided by a citizen journalist, but of unreliable accuracy. And yet!
I can cite a long, long string of examples of inaccurate, misleading, botched and biased news coverage by paid professionals too -- both from my actual newsroom career and my observation as an advocate. I did a line-by-line critique of the Chronicle's 2001 series "exposing" SFUSD mismanagement, as background material for a meeting that leaders of PPS, the SFPTA and Coleman Advocates for Children & Youth held with Chronicle editors over their then-savage coverage of SFUSD. Read ing that series carefully as both a veteran editor and an informed schools advocate was mind-blowing. It was a challenge finding anything that WAS accurate and fair. Misleading bits of information from it pop up in schools coverage to this day.
Still, there are many major stories that couldn't be covered by volunteers. In our area of interest here, Nanette Asimov's article on cheating on standardized tests is a high-profile example. I don't know what will shake out in the long run.
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