One of the sessions here at the AFBF Shining at the PR Summit was titled, “News Media in Transition.” I thought I’d hear stories about how tv and newspapers were utilizing new and social media mechanisms to “transition” to how consumers want to get news and information. Instead I would characterize the comments as being very defensive and actually blaming shoddy reporting today on social media and citizen journalism.

We had a tv news reporter on the panel who says that when it comes to blogging, “I won’t do it.” He admits he’s old school and I think overlooks the value of providing his reports in a mechanism that makes it easier for me to get them. He is confusing unbiased reporting (what’s that?) with opinionating. I think you can use a blog to report news without adding personal perspective. However, I think that consumers want to know the opinion of people they respect and admire and that could very well be a tv reporter.

This same reporter called his Facebook friends, “My little Facebook friends.” That sounded kind of demeaning and dismissive to me. I don’t think he meant it that way but when he said “Everyone has a Twitter/Facebook account” as if somehow there’s something wrong with that it really showed a resistance to change and transition which I think clearly shows why traditional media outlets are struggling so much.

It has been a great session here today. We’re about to go on a tour which I’ll be posting about later.