Eliot Spitzer and the advent of link journalism
Scott Karp uses the Eliot Spitzer story – no, not the tawdry bits but the fact that is a wall-to-wall, traditional/new media Media Event of Proportions the Likes of Which – to talk about link journalism: “There is a HUGE opportunity for news brands to redefine what they do for such “media frenzy” stories — to focus on helping news consumers find the BEST coverage of the story.”
In other words, Karp found 2,580 stories covering the Spitzer story on Google News. Many of these stories were retreads of a much tinier number of original reports, with many opinions and angles thrown in from all over the web and all over the world.
Karp smartly points out the growing need for online reporting that covers this wide world of reporting:
Here’s the really interesting question — what are the five Eliot Spitzer stories according to EVERY news brand covering it via link journalism? What’s the collective judgment of the hundreds of news brands swarming over this story on who’s got the best coverage?
I would go even further though. If a news source was able to grab the five strangest stories about the Elliot Spitzer story, the five stories most off the mark, five most interesting stories from bloggers outside the US or Europe, the five stories that best showcase the impact on the 2008 presidential elections, and on and on… this would be in effect outstanding original reporting, or link journalism as Karp says.
Karp points to his own Publish2, currently in private beta, as a place that will bring the “best news on the web.” I look forward to checking it out when it opens up to the public.
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