A new deal with news readers

The Web enables a level of media interactivity never before available to the common man or woman. Are you taking advantage of it?

from the April 10, 2007 edition

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And sometimes, try as they might, they don't get what they want.

I know firsthand. When the focus of this column shifted to the news media, I had hoped that once every few weeks I would write on a topic suggested by readers. After all, we know what newspaper people think about media news. They spend most of their time scanning the headlines to determine if they will have a job in a few years.

I wanted some fresh perspectives from you all. What concerns you about the media? What do you like? What do you just not understand? What would you like illuminated?

That's not to say I haven't gotten e-mails from any of you. I have heard from many, responded to some, and gotten ideas from a few.

Many of the responses I received, though, were agreeing with or taking issue with what I wrote. That's fine and I expect those e-mails to keep coming. I was just hoping for your thoughts on the media as well.

The biggest batch of responses I have received so far came from a column I wrote on the coverage surrounding presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and what might lie ahead for his relationship with the media. Some of you thought I hated him, and some thought I was offering him cover. For the record, I was trying to do neither.

But what is past is past. Consider this a renewed request for your thoughts on the media. Enough has changed even in the past six months that your thoughts might have changed slightly or done a complete 180.

Maybe you've decided there simply isn't much reason to read or tune in anymore. If so, I'd like to hear about that as well – but more important, I'd like to hear why.

If the great potential of the new media world is the potential for conversation between audience and author, you have an important role to play.

For my part, I promise to diligently read your e-mails and acknowledge your ideas when I write columns based on them. Fair enough?

Now, let me go check my in-box.

• Dante Chinni, a senior associate at the Project for Excellence in Journalism, writes a twice-monthly column on media issues.

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