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The Georgia Forum |
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At the AJC It’s Do As We Say, Not As We Do At the AJC It’s Do As We Say, Not As We Do
Feb 19, 2007 Georgia Political & Policy Digest Opinion
What great multi-taskers they are at the AJC! While busily restructuring their newsroom and operations last week, AJC management tossed around astonishing amounts of arrogance at the same time.
Leonard Witt, Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication at Kennesaw State University, points out in his blog, PJNet, that not a single representative from the AJC, from any department nor in any capacity, bothered to show-up at SoCon07, Atlanta's first social media conference held on February 10th of this month.
Yet the AJC in the now infamous Wallace Memo had the downright gall to claim that,
“Online, we will show that we know Atlanta best, providing superlative news and information and becoming the preferred medium for connecting local communities.”
Not only was the AJC a no-show, not one person from any other Atlanta-based "traditional" media source turned-up at SoCon07, either.
Not a lone AJC reporter, nor a Channel 2 photog seeking a mere sound bite for the evening news, was there to cover SoCon07 as the local, dynamic, newsworthy, new media enterprise so many people volunteered their time and skills to create specifically for the metro Atlanta online community. (And yes, all Atlanta “mainstream media” (MSM) were invited.)
During SoCon07, some of the 250 participants posted relevant editorial and photos to Internet sites within minutes of the kick-off speech. Video and podcasts followed shortly thereafter.
Community-building has been happening online for, oh, about fifteen years now. Given that reality, AJC management should not be too surprised if no one really wants to be associated with their corporately contrived “preferred medium.”
We’ve grown our own new media sources, organically, just fine by now with little help from “traditional media.”
Whatever they do over at the AJC in the coming days, let’s hope they don't go asking any Atlanta bloggers what the Semantic Web is all about before SoCon08.
We're too busy moving forward to be slowed down and bothered by wannabees in the MSM.
Grayson Hurst Daughters is a writer/producer with WaySouth Media and blogs at the Spacey Gracey Review.
