I have a few favourite blogs that I check from time to time, one of these being social network strategist Laurel Papworth’s. I checked Laurel’s blog just yesterday, and was immediately drawn to a recent post showing images of Uluru, plastered with advertising boards. An hour later I opened the Sydney Morning Herald to page three, and there in front of me was a news article … based on Laurel’s post.

This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed ‘news’ being drawn from online content. The interactive nature of the online medium means reader interest and opinion can be more easily gauged, resulting in the increasing frequency of ‘news’ being sourced online.

Anyone who’s viewed the ‘Christian the Lion’ footage (which to date has received around 40,000,000 views world-wide on youtube alone) would have also watched the 30-year old story become a news hit. Following uncontrollable sharing of the footage and undeniable public interest, it suddenly became ‘news’ and has been picked up by talk shows, news programs and newspapers around the world. Most recently, Sony Pictures have started negotiations to turn the story into a movie.

Then there’s ‘Trent from Punchbowl’ – an interview with a foul-mouthed, drug addicted ‘low-life’ found at Punchbowl train station. Various versions of ‘Trent from Punchy’ received more than 1,400,000 views on youtube – that’s 82 times more people than the population of Punchbowl. Various forums, an official website, youtube posts, responses and online discussions led Trent to appear in the Daily Telegraph online. The news angle - is Trent real, bloggers are divided.

In today’s changing media landscape, there is no doubt online information sharing is impacting on what we see and hear in more traditional news mediums – not to mention how long it lasts. Online news stories on the Hungry Jacks Stacker generated hundreds of online responses over two days, and meant a story that should have lasted a day, stuck around for a week. And by the way, the story first appeared in blogs several days earlier.

The value of online cannot be discounted as it continues to grow as a source of entertainment, interest, and news – even for journalists.

- Kara Jecks

September 10th, 2008  |  by Kara Jecks Published in In the News, Online, Public Relations