media

Silicon Alley Insider tells us that Facebook’s COO went to a Financial Times “interview” event held by the Financial Times (as SAI correctly notes, nobody in America reads it).

OK, so far so good. Here’s where it gets weird: the even was “off the record.”

What?

But the reporters who were there can’t tell you because the event was “off the record,” one of them tells us. Who played along? A lot of people: Folks from Reuters, the NY Post, Portfolio, Paidcontent and the Huffington Post were all in attendance, but chose not to tell their readers.

Does this happen all the time and I’m just not aware of it?

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These are two related—but different—questions. Jeff Jarvis today ponders the role of the news media in communities:

But I argued that the real question is, what is the role of the journalistic institution in its community? Is it merely to inform or is it also to organize (which, not coincidentally, is the advice of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg: bring your community elegant organization)?

I agree with Jarvis’s challenge (and with Zuckerberg), there is a key element of community organization that goes into a newspaper, especially those that are focused more locally than nationally. There’s an element of that in magazines, too (Goings On in the New Yorker?).

Is Journalism news or is it community?

It’s both (cop out!). But the larger point is that it includes an element of community. Up until recently, writing a good letter to the editor was one of the better ways to make your opinion heard locally. Now…why not blog it or put it on Facebook?

Which brings us to Is the NYT competing with Facebook?

Yes. The same way they’re competing with craigslist. A lot of the community functions that, up until five or ten years ago, were best provided by newspapers are quickly being replaced by online functionality, that is free, interactive, and often shiny. And we as a species love shiny objects.

This may be one of the reasons that newspapers are finding themselves in so much trouble; maybe just reporting the news isn’t enough to give life to a paper. Maybe there needs to be a real sense of community.

Side question: Are newspapers screwed?

My answer: No.