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Media Watch

This is a journal of media matters for Cape Cod. It is dedicated to the memory of Justice William Brennan who said, "It is from the First Amendment that all our other Liberties flow."
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Now this is a truly wretched idea.

medianationkennedy_205Why some media die
Out-sourcing your local news coverage to India

Media writer Dan Kennedy continues to astound with his insightful reporting of our inky trades' descent down the slippery slope to the  trash bin of history. Dan's column below is another whopper, this time about an online medium;

The Associated Press reports that the Web site Pasadena Now has decided to outsource coverage of the local city council to reporters in India. In a follow-up, the Los Angeles Times says that one of these distant journalists, based in Mumbai, will make $12,000 a year, while the other, in Bangalore, will make $7,200. They'll watch webcasts of the council meetings, consult relevant documents online and send their stories by e-mail. Who cares if they wouldn't know Pasadena from Rawalpindi?

Pasadena Now editor and publisher James Macpherson tells the Times: "A lot of the routine stuff we do can be done by really talented people in another time zone at much lower wages."

Reacting to Macpherson's quote, Kevin Roderick of LA Observed digs up a terrific rejoinder from an anonymous Pasadena blogger:

That's true, to a certain degree. The type of journalistic coverage McPherson [sic] is talking about really could be done by someone in another country, largely because their "coverage" often consists of little more than glorified press releases and parroting of the local media.

This is really quite a bit worse than the Boston Globe's decision to outsource some circulation and advertising functions to India. Indeed, they're even scratching their heads at the Hindustan Times, observing that "it remains to be seen how reporters would file their dispatches on local news — with all its flavour — from such a distant geographical location."

No telltale byline, but here's a possible example.

Dan Gillmor: "For the money he's paying, he [Macpherson] could hire local bloggers. They'd do it better, with more perspectives — and have the advantage of, uh, being there."

Dan Kennedy is a visiting assistant professor at the Northeastern University School of Journalism, a contributing writer for CommonWealth Magazine and the Boston Phoenix, and a commentator for WGBH-TV's "Greater Boston with Emily Rooney".

4 comments
Blog posts and comments are entirely the thoughts and ideas of the people who write them and in no way represent the views of CapeCodToday.com, eCape, Inc., or its employees or owners.

05/14/07 @ 7:53 am
Democrant [Member] writes:
Dan Kennedy is really a treasure for his work, and of course, as is the Blogfather for recognizing it ;)
05/14/07 @ 8:26 am
capemom [Member] writes:
Call me crazy, but I am going to reserve judgement until I actually read some of the coverage produced in India.

If the choice is between no coverage and coverage by Prajeet, I'll take Prajeet.

Although it's crazy that newspapers are even doing this--it's not like American journalists cost that much.
05/14/07 @ 8:44 am
Democrant [Member] writes:
Capri- if you can point out to me one example in the entire country of what you call fair, unbiased and honest reporting, I'd love to see it. And certainly in the blogosphere, there is no expectation of that, any more than a columnist. Too often people equate your list of adjectives with what whom they agree with.

Capemom, the concern I would have is the outsourced news has no context of local knowledge. Having said that, I suspect I could sit on my butt at home, watching local access channels and write something about various town meetings and Selectmen's meetings. It would be dry, but it could be done.
05/14/07 @ 9:11 am
Solon [Member] writes:
You've got to be friggin' kidding! I dropped AOL because I was getting "technical support" from someone reading a script in India. Now I'm going to get my news from there????
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hat135Up-starts, up-smarts, other cranks & dilettantes adorn a media scene once renown for excellence, so this journal will attempt to point out the more obvious foibles and triumphs of the local press to our gentle readers and fellow Cape Codders.

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