Meet the next generation of bloggers.  They get their information from their network of friends, prefer Facebook to Twitter, assume everything they see is marketing and don’t watch local television news.  Their news consumption habits are forcing television stations to rethink how they deliver local news.

These were some of the points that were raised in a roundtable discussion this past Thursday night with a group of college students from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). They were visiting CBS Atlanta’s studios as part of a video production class they were taking.  Sue Rodman and I were on hand at the invitation of  Director of News and Digital Content Steve Schwaid to talk about blogging.

CBS Atlanta is reaching out to bloggers in an effort to stay relevant and attract younger viewers in the new media age.

And those efforts include Blogger Stew and using Blackberries and one person news crews to cover major events like the recent floods we have experienced here in Atlanta.

We covered a lot of topics during the 2 hour discussion including what is the difference between a blog and a news article and what is a blogger’s responsibility to his or her audience.

Clearly, a lot has changed since I was their age, but some issues persist: production values, liability, and ethics.  There was some debate on how important the quality needs to be in the age of YouTube. Television news stations need to maintain certain broadcast standards. But increasingly at least for breaking news, people have a lot more tolerance for bad audio and video – if the images are compelling.

And while we clearly have more leeway in how we cover a story,  journalistic integrity can’t be compromised.  We can’t feed answers to interviewees, we can’t provide information and then get their reaction (after day one of a breaking story), we can’t tape in places where people have an expectation of privacy, and we can’t interview children without their parents’ or guardians’ permission.

Each student was given a camera to cover whatever they wanted.  This class should test their understanding of story telling and their ability to balance the personal and the professional.  It will be interesting to see what they come back with as they pursue stories over the course of the semester.

Let me get back to you.