On “Groundswell”

Groundswell tells its readers that new online social media is basically a jungle, and that corporations must navigate this terrain masterfully in order to survive. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and blogs shouldn’t be feared by out-of-touch, aging CEOs; they should be embraced.

Most of what I’ve read thus far seems like a pitch to fearful CEOs to hire Forrester Communications as consultants. It’s pretty convincing. “It’s a scary Internet world out there. We’re here to help.”

But part of the book’s approach annoys me. Li and Bernoff paint new online social media as a savage beast, one that can ultimately be tamed, but is still savage, perhaps even sinister, nefarious, cunning. Unlike traditional media, which is true, simple, understandable and helpful.

For instance, they write: “Unlike journalists, bloggers may sometimes mix fact and opinion, report rumors, and fail to disclose conflicts of interest.

As if journalists don’t ever do the same thing…

There are countless incidences of “traditional journalists” not doing their due diligence. Mixing fact and opinion, like in the NYTimes story about John McCain and a female lobbyist, which intimated that the two had a sexual affair. Or reporting rumors, like the one that said people were being killed and raped in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. (That wasn’t true.) Or failing to disclose conflicts of interests, like the fact that Sanjay Gupta, CNN medical journalist, and formerly under consideration for US Attorney General, accepts speaking fees from many of the organizations he’s supposed to be reporting about fairly.

Often, this new media that supposedly has fewer standards than the old is doing what old media is too scared to. Breaking the Trent Lott/Strom Thurmond story, or the Mark Allen/Macaca scandal. Letting America know that White House press correspondent Jeff Gannon was actually a Bush II-era Republican plant. Or running a tighter fact-checking organization than Dan Rather and exposing “Memogate”.

New media’s not the enemy. Sometimes, it’s journalism’s savior. I hope that Li and Bernoff make this point more directly before the end of the book. Even if they’re only getting consulting gigs from those scared of the new stuff.