Web monitoring is a method that many use to find content that happens in real-time on the Internet. Bloggers will use these services in order to develop their own material for their websites. Some serious journalists view this collection of content as “lazy journalism” and discourage using such methods to create blog posts. However, hasn’t this been a regular practice since the inception of producing newspapers or television broadcasts?
Points of View
For many bloggers, it isn’t practical to hop on a plane and witness events unfold in order to be a part of the story. The Internet provides humanity with a method of gathering that information based on the materials produced by others who had the story posted first. Although this may seem like many bloggers are “riding the coat-tails” of others, it’s a practice that many journalists participate in regularly.
Cross Check Your Facts
In a mad dash in order to continue having high ratings, many broadcast news television stations such as CNN will report on a particular event whether facts are true or not. What defines the line between lazy and active journalism is the basis of facts. If you are monitoring a trend using web alert software and not reporting correct facts based on what you find, then that is lazy journalism. You are developing content without having the entire scope of the story for no other purpose than to have it out first. However, many bloggers will verify information and cross check facts in order to produce quality content. Is this lazy journalism? These bloggers put in more effort to bring facts culminated from various outlets than many paid professional television news anchors.
In Your Own Words
Web monitoring is only part of the journey to produce quality content. What makes it proactive is the way the material is presented. Copy and pasting the content will not only score your blog poorly across search engines, but it could also get you in trouble due to copyright laws. However, delivering the material in a new way can bypass all of those legalities and consequences for the content is merely your own. Facts are facts, but the wording is what differentiates individuality. Tell the story how it pertains to your own viewpoints.
Keep Your Blog Unique to You
When it comes to developing content for your blog, the goal is to attract readers. You don’t want to regurgitate the same story that thousands of other people are relaying – unless you can do it differently. There is only so many ways you can produce factual information based on its nature, but can you deliver it in a way that no one has thought of? It is this individuality that can differentiate your blog from the thousands that are reporting on the same story.
You Can’t Be Everywhere at Once
One of the most successful ways to develop a strong readership of your blog is to provide fresh and new content that no one has developed before. In a world where a blog post can be quickly completed from a smartphone, it is extremely difficult to have an original story. Unless you are in the right place at the right time, you will more than likely have to rely on other people’s information.
As long as you can provide factual material in a unique fashion, using web monitoring applications shouldn’t be viewed as lazy journalism. Do a bit of “leg work” yourself and verify your facts before posting information you think is true. Let CNN be your guide and learn from their mistakes from the Boston bombing of 2013. You don’t always have to be first to develop engaging material.
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Author:
Ken Myers is the founder of http://www.longhornleads.com/ & has learned over the years the importance of focusing on what the customer is looking for and literally serving it to them. He doesn’t try to create a need, instead he tries to satisfy the existing demand for information on products and services.
