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Americans “cling to guns or religion”
as an expression of their frustration.
However, this reporting by Mayhill
Fowler, the citizen journalist who broke
this story, actually drew attention away
from Off the Bus’s broader achievement.
Toward the end
of the campaign, Off
the Bus was publishing
some 50 stories
a day, and Michel—
with the help of her
crowd—was able to
write profiles of every
superdelegate, perform
investigations
into dubious financial
contributions to
the campaigns, and
publish compelling
firsthand reports from the frontlines
in the battleground states. The national
press took note—and sent its
kudos—but more importantly, readers
noticed. Off the Bus drew 3.5 million
unique visitors to its site in the month
of September.
Michel achieved this because she
took away valuable information from
the failures of the experimentation at
Assignment Zero. Rather than dictate
to her contributors, she forged a new
kind of journalism based on playing
to their strengths. The result: Some
contributors wrote op-eds, while others
provided reporting that journalists at
the Web site then used in weaving together
investigative features, including
From journalistic pariah to savior
of the news industry, blogs
have undergone an enormous
transformation in recent years. As a
journalist and a blogger, I was curious
to see how this transformation
from blogophobia to blogophilia was
50 Nieman Reports | Winter 2008
one that explored an increase in the
prescribing of hypertension medicine
to African-American women during
the campaign. They also contributed
“distributed reporting,” in which the
network of contributors performed
tasks such as analyzing how local
affiliates summed up the vice presidential
debate. “We received reports
from more than 100 media markets,”
Michel said. “We really got to see how
the debate was perceived in different
regions.”
Is Off the Bus the future of journalism?
Hardly, Michel contends, and
I agree wholeheartedly. She regards
Off the Bus as complimentary, not
competitive, with the work done by
traditional news organizations. “We
didn’t want to be the AP. We think the
AP does a good job. The question was
what information and perspective can
citizens, not reporters on the trail, offer
to the public?” Nor does she claim the
affecting journalism. Was the hype
surrounding the potential of blogs to
transform our craft being realized—or
were journalists simply treating their
blogs as another “channel” into which
to plough content?
Earlier this year I distributed an
Off the Bus method would work with
all stories. It’s easy to build such a
massive network of volunteer reporters
when the story is so compelling. But
what happens when the topic generates
far less passion, even if it is no
less important—say,
for example, the nutri-
tional content in public
school lunches?
The take-away message
for journalists
should be this: Adapt
to these changes and
do so quickly. “The
future of content is
conversation,” says
Michael Maness, the
Gannett executive who
helped craft the company’s
recent newsroom overhaul.
Worth noting is that one of Gannett’s
unqualified successes are the so-called
“mom sites,” launched in some 80
markets. Each is overseen and operated
online by a single journalist with the
assignment of facilitating conversation
while also providing information.
“We’re moving away from mass media
and moving to mass experience,” says
Maness. “How we do that? We don’t
know.” �
Jeff Howe writes for Wired magazine
and is the author of “Crowdsourcing:
Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving
the Future of Business,” published
by Crown Business in 2008.
When Journalists Blog: How It Changes What They Do
‘I was surprised at just how much these journalists felt their work had been
changed by the simple act of blogging.’
BY PAUL BRADSHAW
Readers are very interested in playing a role in the
creation of their local media. They don’t necessarily
want to write the news; what they want is to engage
in a conversation. This doesn’t mean, however, that
they don’t have valuable contributions to make.
online survey to blogging journalists to
get a feel for the lie of the land. The
response was incredible—coming from
200 journalists from 30 countries, representing
newspapers and magazines,
television and radio, online-only and
freelancers. United States and United