“Vlogging” Is the New Game

Does no one read Vanity Fair anymore? Harper’s? Newsweek? Bark magazine, for crying out loud? Or is everyone so busy—with html codes, blogspot, insider comments and linking to someone who may eventually offer a back-scratch link in return—to read the likes of traditional writers and essayists anymore? (If you think this sentiment is hopelessly nostalgic and out of touch, go find John Updike’s recent essay “The End of Authorship,” which is even more wistful, and much more compelling, obviously, than anything this editor will ever write.) The answer, of course, is that despite the confident threats of new media zealots, Updike can probably rest easy—for the remainder of his days, anyway. The vast majority of readers are still getting their fingers dirty, holding their news and entertainment between finger and thumb over coffee, daily constitutionals, in bed and even at their desks. By most accounts—and we say this, even as the Scene hosts two blogs—blog readers are still among a distinct minority, numbering only a few percent of American news consumers. And that’s why bloggers deserve some serious credit. For a motley crew of sun-deprived computer junkies with funky handles and audiences directly disproportionate to post prolificness—that is to say, miniscule though growing—bloggers here and everywhere are exerting an almost shocking amount of influence. So much so that WKRN-Channel 2 general manager Mike Sechrist announced last week that the station would start paying bloggers for videos and stories. (If you read Sechrist’s blog, you already know this.) This bulletin from Sechrist—who, by the way, is far from a zealot—came informally to a coterie of bloggers who’d slipped off their PJs (a sweeping generalization, of course, but irresistible) to meet up with others of their ilk at Wolfy’s Den last Thursday. Sechrist figures that, eventually, the station will get enough good video and storytelling from “vloggers” that it could produce a daily 30-minute show—better, he says, than enriching syndicated television for mindless Judge Judy episodes, and we can’t disagree. As it is, WKRN pays bloggers $100 a weekend to fill in on the station’s Nashville Is Talking website. “I just wanted to start moving this to the next step,” says Sechrist, whose video-journalism approach at News 2 has gotten national attention and who concedes to “making it up as we go along.” “We’re going to pay them for videos…and we’re trying to come up with some sort of pay scale that will make sense. What I want to do is tap into creative energy out there. We’re not going to get cutting-edge investigative stories.” And there it is. As parochial or arrogant as it may sound, there’s something a little frightening about the idea of giving some average Joe off the street, with no formal journalistic training, a camera, a mic and a license to report. Even cub reporters who don’t have the benefit of journalism school are at least tested and trained by the rigors of newsroom immersion. Sechrist offers welcome qualifiers: vloggers will be tackling only slice-of-life fare; next month, WKRN will be offering free and open workshops for interested vloggers; and stories will be subject to the usual editing process. “This is not a move to supplant broadcast journalists with citizen journalists,” he writes on his blog. “This is about adding unique content to our newscasts. Not YouTube videos but stories about neighborhoods, people and events from a different perspective. The bloggers seemed receptive to the proposal. You can’t spend any amount of time with the bloggers and not come away impressed by their passion. They have lives and other jobs but still find time to write thoughtful, intelligent and engaging posts on all sorts of subjects. I want them to know there is a local station in this town that supports what they do…and can offer them a platform to showcase their efforts.” A video camera and an Internet connection do not a reporter make. But the same can be said of a journalism degree. What matters is nerve, scruple and a willingness to look where no one else will—and to keep looking when everyone else says move on. WKRN’s experiment—not just paying vloggers but its whole new approach to journalism—may well flop. But if it pays off, we’ll suddenly see our city through many new eyes. And if nothing else, it beats Judge Judy.