In a piece by Michael Calderone & Daniel Libit on Politico.com, an argument is made that for this year's election cycle, cable and broadcast news had been usurped by (gasp) Twitter streams of influential political pros. And there's a major insight in this for any company looking to broaden its influence within its particular industry.
From the article's top:
Political junkie Mike Murphy couldn't get his fix while flipping through the cable networks Tuesday night.
"With a few exceptions," Murphy told POLITICO, "like [James] Carville on CNN or [Karl] Rove on Fox, I didn't see people who know anything about elections."
For hardcore lovers of politics, Twitter served up the real-time nuts and bolts of campaigns racing to the finish line. Top political reporters like NBC's Chuck Todd tapped away for hours as results came in. Meanwhile, the Washington Independent's Dave Weigel provided constant, on-the-ground dispatches from New York's 23rd congressional district, with Twitpics inside Conservative Doug Hoffman headquarters as the tide changed toward the Democrats. With each precinct reporting, journalists and junkies offered quick takes, both amusing and analytical.
Only more evidence of what we've said in this space before -- people like content that features true expertise and useful insights. While CNN, MSNBC and FOXNEWS provide a fun rip roaring run through the hot-and-bothered opinion-driven political sphere, the people who work in politics want facts, insights and relevance -- sometimes from the same employees of these networks without all the chuffa-chuffa of the network.
Too much media strategy has been placed on appealing to the most viewers possible...including vast millions who tune in these cable shows with no real interest in politics beyond the joy of getting worked up. (Same thing for when they are in traffic getting cut off, yelling at a drive-thru clerk for botching an order or arguing with a gate agent at LAX. Is this really the demo a network wants to offer up to advertisers?)
As a veteran of the newspaper/radio/TV/Web media circuit, I've been through streams of editors who thought dumbing-down the coverage to appeal to "real people" was the answer to the creeping irrelevance everyone is fighting in a splintered media market.
The problem is, dumbing down turns off the only people who mattered in the first place -- people who treat information, knowledge and insight as a hot commodity. Those who have specialized in an area (Politico.com is an example that comes to mind) have thrived in this challenging market. And the insight for corporations who now feature Twitter streams, Facebook news feeds, blogs and the like is that you can truly own a conversation by putting your expertise front and center in front of the world...cover your industry honestly, with enthusiasm, gusto and sophistication and watch the world of influencers flock to your doorstep.
--Mike Hudson
Strategists & Planners
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