Politco.com as a website brings up many issues about a genre-centric approach to journalism. When a group of journalist focus on one sole type of new stories, in the case of Politco.com is American politics in Washington D.C., they neglect other important stories that are not part of their chosen scope. For example, when one opens the website page the first thing noticeable is every article on the main page is about Washington related politics. The main article for Sunday afternoon, for instance, was about how Rick Perry lost the Florida straw poll to Herman Cain, a “long-shot candidate”.
Within “Rick Perry reels after Florida flop” reporters Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman only have quotes and analysis of the GOP candidate’s failure in Florida by Washington based individuals. What would have been more conducive to this article that was about how state based members of the Republican Party would have been to have insight to why Florida citizens chose not to support Rick Perry. Instead, they had Republican strategist, for example, point out the ways Perry could return to power and why he was unable to win the straw poll. Due to Politco.com’s desire to solely look at American politics in the scope of Washington many of their articles loose the voice of the average American, and the politics that truly matter to them.
In truth, Politco.com is a wonderful idea. It allows readers to know exactly what kind of view they will be given on certain political issues and stories. There is nothing wrong with having a genre-centric approach to journalism. However, the only concern of this approach is the way isolates average Americans, who have something to say about politics that take place in their state and affect the whole nation.
Paige,
ReplyDeleteYou make a very good point here through one particular article on Politico having to do with Rick Perry about the pitfalls of niche media. Might have been worth trying to figure out if Politico even had a reporter in Florida covering this straw vote, or if their reporter just did all her/his work from D.C. I would have mentioned that since Perry only announced his intentions on Aug. 13, a straw vote at the one-month mark may have meant little in the grand scheme of things - Politico's headline is a bit sensationalistic.
One technical, but important, note: You misspelled Politico on your first two references. Got to nail those quality-control issues to build your credibility as a commenter/writer.
Other thoughts on your analysis: Your premise that a niche media can be so narrowly focused that it fails to see the big picture needs to be bolstered with info about Politico's audience trends (growing or stagnant?), awards (if any) and credibility among the Hill industry of all stripes. If it is, for example, an authoritative voice in some political news categories, then is examining just one flawed article fair?