Have Search Engines Replaced Journalists?

I met with a woman yesterday who talked about a new business she’s launching – creating beautiful, glossy, magazines as a company-sponsored advertising vehicle, published quarterly. The idea – implemented both in print and online — was compelling, and my eyes feasted on the gorgeous sample products she spread out across the table. The magazine – funded by a single sponsor and some cooperative advertising – had both high production quality and serious, informative articles, written by professional journalists.

But wait, I asked, how can anyone find articles in an advertiser-sponsored publication to be objective?   Aren’t they just a mouthpiece for the sponsoring company? Where’s the credibility?

And yet, said my SEO voice, that’s exactly what we do for our clients. We help companies build out quality content on their website, write articles & press releases for distribution with links back to their website, and engage through social media to share their views online.   Where’s the objectivity in any of that?

Here’s the funny thing.  Objectivity and credibility aren’t necessarily what they once were.  I’m not saying they’re unimportant, only that they’re not so clear-cut in this age of information.  It used to be that “media” – e.g. journalists — played the role of unbiased interpreters. They were the credible truth-tellers, the ones you could trust to get “the real story” and explain it to the public in clear, objective terms. But somewhere along the way to our current information-overload society, the job became too big and media outlets, challenged to stay on top of the information flow, turned more and more into channelers of information rather than interpreters.  As their numbers dwindle and media editorial budgets continue to shrink, the ability of the traditional press to act as primary source of objective reporting is further diminished.

So where does our “truth” come from?  More and more, it comes from the collective wisdom of the Internet – from the sea of information available online. Rather than a journalist, the primary filter is a search engine and the interpreter is the individual user.

I ask again — Have Search Engines Replaced Journalists?

In a word, no.   But it’s a question worth pondering.