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Saturday, January 05, 2008

Tech journalism at a crossroads

The January 2 edition of John C. Dvorak’s video podcast CrankyGeeks is must-viewing for PR practitioners, and in particular those who work for technology clients. Dvorak’s guests include New York Times writers John Markoff and Gregg Zachary, who offer an intriguing take on the state of technology journalism; Sebastian Rupley from PC Magazine rounds out the panel.

Some of the group’s observations:

  • Tech PR firms are driving the coverage of technology in the press
  • The requirement to have fresh copy online daily has led reporters to abandon the more in-depth and substantive coverage that once characterized technology reporting
  • The fact that so many reporters are chummy with the companies they cover has resulted in little critical coverage of executive performance

Zachary suggested that the day is approaching when technology reporters won’t be necessary at all. As he put it, companies will issue press releases sliced and diced into distinct sections that can be assembled anywhere without journalistic intervention. That sounds awfully close to the hRelease specification currently under development by a working group under Shannon Whitley’s direction. The hRelease microformat that defines the various elements of a social media press release just as the hEvent miroformat describes the elements of a calendar entry.

Also discussed is the inadvertent release of a journalist’s dossier maintained by PR firm Waggener Edstrom for its client Microsoft. The mistaken release wasn’t the point of the discussion; it merely revealed that Waggener Edstrom maintains such dossiers, a clear attempt to control Microsoft’s media coverage.

Agree or disagree with the panel’s views and conclusions, it’s captivating viewing for those of us working in this field.

Posted by Shel on 01/05 at 01:14 PM
Media • PR • Technology • (2) Comments • (1) Trackbacks • Permalink
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