Friday, November 23, 2007
OJR: Decline of the Gatekeepers
A Nov. 16
Online Journalism Review article by
Robert Niles offers some current examples of how mainstream media's role as gatekeeper of the public agenda is declining as the Internet gains influence.
The first involves this
letter to Jim Romenesko posted Nov. 15 to Poynter Online by reader
David Crook. Summarized by Niles, Crook's letter brought to the attention of the national journalism community "the story of
Megan Meier,
a 13-year-old who had some trouble (like many teens) but was reportedly
turning her life around, in part due to the friendship of a boy she'd
met on MySpace. But when the boy turned on her, insulting her, Megan
was devastated, then took her life. The twist? The
boy didn't exist. 'He' was the creation of the mother of one of the
girl's former friends. But the Journal didn't name the woman, citing
concerns for
her teen daughter."
Steve Pokin of the St. Charles Journal originally
covered this sad tale on Nov. 13.
From there bloggers discovered the mother's name, address, and other information, and posted them widely. Niles observes: "The lessons for journalists? First, we can't restrict access to
information anymore. The crowd will work together to find whatever we
withhold. Second, I wonder if that the decision to withhold the other mother's name didn't help enflame the audience."
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