Yesterday's Chicago Journalism Town Hall held at the Hotel Allegro opened a discussion among longtime adversaries -- those in the mainstream media and those in the new media.
For the first time, we heard longtime media professionals publicly confess their fear and loathing of bloggers that attract readers and followers by "stealing" original material and writing snarky comments about those efforts. On the other hand, we heard angry bloggers and new media entrepeneurs express resentment towards those established, well-paid media personalities, one commenter saying he "hopes to kill" Chicago area media stardom with his expanding online efforts.
We heard confessions of guilt from newspaper and broadcast professionals for not anticipating the effects of the "online freight train moving at 20 mph." We heard professionals say they've been "victimized" by online citizen journalists who, in their amateur status and hobby writing, steal from their efforts.
We heard bloggers share their resentment of being treated as second-rate journalists and the humbling battle to even be added to press release lists and have query calls returned.
From my perspective as a member of the 350 or so in the audience, the discussion with the 14 featured panelists was informative, enlightening and eye-opening. One thing I found is it's not only conservative bloggers in Illinois that are struggling emotionally and financially to keep excited and enthused about the writing we do on a daily basis. Yesterday, I found out it's an industry-wide plague, with few, very few exceptions.
The town hall featuring Chicago media biggies like Carol Marin, Carlos Hernandez Gomez, John Callaway and Eric Zorn, will be broadcast on cable CAN-TV in March. We'll put the details on the Illinois Review calendar for your reference.
UPDATE: If you can't wait for the broadcasts, you could skim Chicago Public Radio's live blog found HERE. Thanks, Medill School of Journalism's Poynter Blog for the link!
Hang with us folks, we're all in for a bumpy ride on so many fronts --including huge changes in the media front. Illinois Review will do all we can to be here as a conservative community center venue to help work our way through it.
Karl Rove should be in jail, not collecting a speaker's fee at an Illinois Lincoln Day Dinner. Abraham Lincoln is probably rolling in his grave at the travesty into which his party has morphed, steered much by that criminal, Rove.
Posted by: Uli Pele | Monday, February 23, 2009 at 02:38 PM
Good wrap-up guys. You may want to join in the discussion about the forum that we're having over here: http://www.windycitizen.com/chicago/media/2009/02/at-the-chicago-journalism-town-hall-today
Posted by: Anna Tarkov | Monday, February 23, 2009 at 04:01 PM
Thanks Anna, and thanks for the link~
What a great spontaneously orchestrated effort to cover this event!
Posted by: IR Editor | Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 12:01 AM
Great coverage Fran - You're the best!!
Posted by: Tim Palmer - HawkeyeReview.com | Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 07:26 PM
By the by, it wasn't spontaneously orchestrated. WindyCitizen.com brings visitors the best local content every day, whether it be from mainstream media or bloggers. Anyone could submit their articles/columns/posts/videos/events. So come on by and submit your stuff sometime and join in the discussions we have about the news of the day.
Posted by: Anna Tarkov | Friday, March 06, 2009 at 02:07 PM
Wow, I didn't realize there was a conflict between the media professionals and the bloggers.
-Peter
Posted by: Ceutiderm RX | Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 11:18 AM