October 27, 2007

MSM Blogs Alter Campaign Coverage

Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz says the mushrooming number of political blogs on newspaper and magazine web sites "has altered the terrain of the 2008 election."

Campaign officials have learned to feed the bottomless pit of these constantly updated compilations, leaking favorable tidbits -- a new poll result or television ad -- and quickly disputing negative items.In short, journalists and political strategists find themselves sparring more and more over smaller and smaller items on shorter and shorter deadlines.

Among the MSM outlets with politics blogs: The Washington Post has "The Trail," the New York Times has "The Caucus," the Chicago Tribune has "The Swamp," the Los Angeles Times has "Top of the Ticket," the Boston Globe has "The Primary Source" and Time magazine has "Swampland." And of course the cable networks have blogs too.

The high-velocity approach is not without pitfalls for journalists who now must divide their time between print work and blogging. The constant pressure to update blogs, thereby drawing more Web traffic, leaves less time for reporting and reflection. Churning out items throughout the day increases the chances of errors and puts a premium on bite-size chunks fed by a single source. On the plus side, reporters writing online can file updates with comments from rival campaigns and correct any mistakes in real time.