The New Journalism?

Recent events in a small corner of the Atlanta technology community have recently shone a light, for me anyway, on the evolution of the relationships between journalists and their subjects.

Whereas a reporter in the past might only have occasion to talk to the CEO of a local company or a GP at a VC firm when they had a story to write, they now can converse frequently (and quite publicly) via tools like Twitter, Facebook and others. This shift presents opportunities and challenges for both sides of the equation.

In the old world there were well understood rules for both sides. Rules that had evolved over time but with a pretty low churn rate. The tone of the communication would probably be fairly rigid, formal and concise. Each party's expectations were probably understood equally well by both parties. Both sides recognized the needs of the other that they fulfilled. These are all generalizations, of course. There always will be some exceptions.

All of those things, however, have changed now with the advent of Social Media, the Twitterverse and any number of new communication channels. I'll post more about that later...

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