A recent Pew Research study, "
How the News Happens -- Still," that "examined all the outlets that produced local news" in Baltimore -- traditional newspapers, local TV, radio, niche media and new media -- and concluded that some 95 percent of news comes from traditional media, has come under fire recently.
Here's an excerpt:
"Occasionally, you'll still see comments by newspaper traditionalists advocating radical measures (government support, etc.) to save newspapers, based on the claim that only newspapers do original reporting. There was an element of that inherent in the recent
Pew Report, for example, that attempted to analyze news coverage in Baltimore. (More on that in a bit.)
We believe there's a false assumption there�that only newspapers are doing original reporting, or are the only ones capable of it. We think that's wrong: independent journalists, publishing digitally on entrepreneurial local sites, are doing important original reporting, as well.
We were reminded of that the other day with this story by the Broward Bulldog, breaking news of a $170 million Ponzi scheme in South Florida (one of three or four uncovered there in the past year). Notice that the story didn't break in the dominant local traditional media in South Florida: the Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post or Sun-Sentinel. It was broken by an independent site."
Read the entire article here.