Last night Edelman hosted Editorial Intelligence’s latest event in association with the Reuters Insitute for the Study of Journalism and political junkys’ favourite glossy read, Total Politics that pitched print journalists against bloggers to see who would come out on top. The premise of the event was to debate the merits of online social media and the lasting power and influence of traditional media.
The expert and witty contributions made by Julia Hobsbawn, David Arronovitch, Martin Bright, Mick Fealty, Anne Spackman and not forgetting Iain Dale, left me utterly convinced that the title of the debate was misworded. Whilst it seems an emerging sport to attack, praise, champion and then attack social media and the print press the debate last night cannot escape the reality of the modern media that it is not one or the other but both together that defines our consumption.
The room itself was fairly divided when it came to saying what media people reach for first for their news. I prefer mine online via Twitter and BBC News Online but I know others in my team prefer the Guardian or the Telegraph first topped up by summaries from prominent bloggers. Newspapers are losing circulation and blogs are gaining visitors. This doesn’t mean the traditional media is dead (not yet anyway). It means that people are changing the way they consume their news and comment and those who work in PR and politics need to be alive to this.
Thank you to everyone who attended the debate last night. Iain Dale has a review of the event on his site here and LabourList’s Alex Smith has a write up here. Let us know your thoughts on the debate last night. We’ll post the video of the event shortly.
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