July 31, 2005

A Nashville Bloggers Survey

Terry Heaton has written up his survey of Nashville bloggers about the WKRN/NashvilleIsTalking.com experiment in fusing mainstream media with the blogosphere...

Mainstream media that play in this space need to first understand that the blogging community doesn't need them, and that humbling reality is what needs to guide strategies and tactics as they work to get involved. The Nashville blogosphere is now five times larger than it was when the station first began its involvement, and I think it's safe to say they've played a role in encouraging that growth.

How? Simply by listening. Who knew?

Along the way, station personnel have discovered something they didn't expect: getting to know the local blogging community is a lot more fun than you can possibly imagine up front. And frankly, folks, fun isn't a word that's been associated with local media for a long, long time. How do you put a value on that?

UPDATE: I was just on the WKRN home page and noticed a link to a blog by Todd Dunn, a News 2 video shooter who is now blogging his transformation into a videojournalist or "VJ." His blog introductory post a few weeks ago:

I have started a blog to keep a public diary of the evolution of my career from television news photojournalist into a television video journalist or vj. If you are wondering "what is a vj?" the short answer to that question is a person who works as a one-man band, reporting, shooting and editing a news story. I have worked as a TV news photojournalist working with a reporter and being primarily responsible for shooting and editing daily news stories for eleven years.

I work at WKRN News 2 is Nashville, TN where the whole station is converting to the non-traditional vj format, which is more than a little scary. News 2 will be the first station in the country to completely switch to this format. I guess a lot of the fear is of the unknown, will I be able to adjust, will the vj concept succeed and will I still have a job in six months?! are just a few of the many fears that are knocking around in my head. The management of the station has done a good job of reassuring our staff that the vj concept will work but there are a lot of people who are very skeptical.

I know there will be a lot of people watching the transformation to see how it turns out. I am excited about the new opportunity and hope it goes well.

I wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to comment and share constructive criticism. I will admit it is a little strange to have the feedback. I have never had to deal with it before because it has always been a reporters story and I just went home. Please keep it coming though, and with your advice and some hard work on my part I will be able to get better.