DatacenterDynamics Seattle just on Sept 4, 2014 in Bellevue at the Hyatt. It was good to catch up with Stephen Worn and one of the conversations I had is does he think people understand how the media companies that cover the data center industry work? He and I know, but do others? He agreed that OMG, yes.

Here is a study on traditional media companies.

Rowse found the charges of news bias to be valid--in selection, in display and in tone--on both political sides, but preponderantly in the pro-Republican direction. He concluded that, "with the possible exception of the New York Times, all papers--both Republican and Democratic--showed evidence of favoritism in their news columns in violation of their own accepted rules of conduct," and that "almost every example of favoritism in the news columns coincided with the paper's editorial feelings." This "would indicate that over 80 percent of the nation's newspaper readers may be getting their editorials with some Republican flavoring."

The conclusion of this study is to have media judge other media.

Rowse concludes his book with remarks on the problems of measuring bias. "The persons best qualified to evaluate newspaper fairness," he says, "are newspapermen themselves; yet they are unwilling to do this." He thinks that the next step is to set up regional panels of newspapermen who would meet periodically and rate each paper's performance.

This isn’t going to happen and last to change how we perceive media. The above study was printed in 1957.

What is useful if you are going to read the media looking for data centers news is to understand how they work.

Too many people read the media and take what is written as gospel. Many of us laugh when their coworkers quote a media publications article as if it is a fact.

Part of what I have enjoyed is being in the role of blogger and media is learning how media organizations work, and in the process making good friends. These friends are people who because I know them and how they think and work allow me to refine my perspective on how to read their work. It is kind of funny to think when I am in a media briefing with other media that I gain more insight on the writers, than the briefing. Watching the flow of questions from media, what they ask, how they dress, what equipment they have, who they talk to before and after the meeting.

Wow, just figured out that media briefings are a chance to evaluate the fairness of media. Watch what is presented. What is asked. Then analyze what is written and where the bias is. All the writers were in the same meeting, yet look at the range of coverage.