By way of Tom Foremski (who hat tips Romanesko):
David Carr, The New York Times media critic/reporter/blogger, is in Rochester, New York, today to talk about, well, the future of media. In an interview with the Rochester City Paper published last week, Carr touched on a subject I (and probably most newsroom vets) think is much overlooked in the discussion of the role bloggers and citizen journalists will play in the evolving media environment:
"I think people assume that, "Oh, we'll be able to use the web to assemble a portrait of the world beyond our town," and the fact is that Google News or whatever RSS feeder you've got, most of it is just annotating coverage. Somebody has to make phone calls somewhere in order for news to function.
"Where are the data inputs coming from? Where is the information coming from? In other words, who is making the phone calls? Who is sending the emails? You cannot have a robust discourse without a database of current information. And if the information that's being culled through is just government-issued data without a critical eye or editing, then you're going to end up with a fairly dumb republic.
"There's a conceit that young people get their news from the Jon Stewart show or get their news from the web, but there was a study not long ago at Ball State, and if you're talking, say, 18 to 24, young people just don't get their news. That's all there is to it. They don't have a strong interest in it. So there you have a very attractive advertising demographic where there's no upside in serving them with that kind of information, because they have no interest or need. There's not much news on a Playstation, man."
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