Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

I'm a news junkie. Coming from a career in journalism, I can honestly say big news is my favorite thing in the world. And a close second to covering big news is watching how the media covers it.

Earthquakes have a special place in Californians' lives... they effect everyone, but also give us a chance to talk about ourselves and our unique experience. Soon after the quake hit, the phone lines went out.

All circuits busy. Cell phones. Texting. All spotty at best until 12 million Angelinos and everyone they knew could hear they were safe and chat about what happened.

Internet service hung in like a champ. And TV signals were never interrupted as electric power survived without a blip.

Interestingly, the LATimes.com site instantly crashed from too many requests. So we know people -- many of whom were at work at 11 a.m. -- thought to go there first. They would have seen a headline, but no story. The Associated Press wouldn't move anything beyond an alert for
15 minutes. For those who had TV, the anchors on the midday newscasts tried to fill time and most quickly had reporters on cell phones filling in details from around the region.

Amid it all, my BlackBerry winked at me time and time again. Some emails... but a whole lot of Facebook feeds and Twitters. Friend status reports came in steady and true. In 15, 20, 30 minutes and the hours after, the LATimes.com, CNN, and local TV had saturation coverage.

Turns out, there wasn't much damage. As the newspaper headline put it, "Ho Hum...Another Not the Big One."

And the world moved on, leaving the story of California's imminent doom for another day. Back to yoga and looking at ourselves in the reflection off your sunglasses.

But in the immediate term, when information was most important... citizen journalism kicked big media around the block...or did it?

The question of whether Twitter or Facebook or even email service is mainstream really doesn't get at the point. Getting pieces of the story from these feeds is useful. And any media outlet would be well served to make sure they are tapped in to these sources to help guide their coverage in disasters because smart, active and motivated people will point coverage in the right direction as the story unfolds.

But for every minute that a SoCal-ite Twittered his observations ahead of the AP story, there's a famous case of major media outlets jumping the gun in big news and committing the ultimate sin of journalism...getting it wrong. In recently memory we've seen wire services, TV, newspapers and magazines elect a president, elect another and then punt all in one night. A mis-Twittered fact is OK no matter how mainstream it ever becomes or how widespread the use. That's not true for a media outlet, which is in the business of selling facts (or something resembling truth...insert cynical cough here.)

Breaking news is a dangerous thing...rumors have a way of finding their way into coverage when time is tight and facts are in short supply. So all the Twitters in the world wouldn't make me believe a word said unless it was from a trusted friend or supported by the solid reporting of several outlets.

It takes time for the government to assess damage. It takes time for officials to make statements. And it takes time to get the story right. I'd love for the AP, CNN and LA Times to use all avenues to get richer detail...but reporters will still need to confirm those facts.
And that's why LA jammed up the site of the local paper just after the quake hit...a history of trust.

But deeper still, while we all look to the Twitter, text and Facebook or whatever else as the "next" way of doing things, I'd say the real hero of breaking news is consistently turning out to be the biggest dinosaur of them all, the phone.

There's a reason it was the phone lines that jammed just after 11a in LA on Monday. Even if my mom saw my Twitter that says "I'm not dead" she's still going to want to speak with me. And that's because there's more to communication than simple information. And these events demonstrates the unique power of this old favorite.

It's intimate, it's trustworthy...and it still works when the power is out.

Mike Hudson