While in Chicago, I got to talk with Maureen Ryan, of AOL TV. We discussed a few things, but in the clip here, we talked about a subject that interested me: How has social media, especially Twitter, influenced those who write about television on a regular basis?
A lot of the key reporters and critics are on Twitter and tend to all follow each other. I would have thought the key problem would be the danger of the “echo chamber” effect, which might lead to the herd all speaking with one voice, but Ryan talks about Twitter as “the second-guessing machine.” How can you use Twitter to be aware of what’s being talked about, while avoiding losing your own point-of-view and keeping your own criteria about what to write about?
From a journalistic standpoint, Ryan notes that there’s a value in the way news breaks really fast on Twitter, but then asks what is the value of a reporter breaking news? You can’t replicate the newsfeed, so you then need to bring something else, perhaps quality analysis or exclusive clips. Ryan says that Twitter forces her to substantial enough in her work to be worth her time.
She also points out that the old TV beat model of writing a review before the first episode appears (perhaps revisiting the show a few months later), seems to be fading out. Young people often know about a show in advance and will make of their minds about whether they’ll tune in. The way that outlets like AOL TV, Hitfix and the Onion A.V. Club’s TV Club cover television does seem like a break from the past.