Who Really Are the Most Influential People in the World

ByRichard A. Lee

For astate that finds itself as the punch line of too many jokes, Time magazine’s recent list of the 100most influential people in the world offers New Jerseyans some badly neededammunition to counter the laughs that people have at our state’s expense.

GovernorChristie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker made the list, as did Newark native RayChambers, who has worked hard to revitalize the city and now is focused oneradicating malaria; former N.J. Environmental Commissioner Lisa Jackson, whonow heads the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and punk rock pioneer PattiSmith, who grew up in Deptford Township. Not a bad showing for a list thatincludes just 100 people from all over the world.

Moretelling, however, is how the list – which was compiled by Time editors – compares with the results of magazine’s onlinepoll, which is based on votes cast by the general public. Christie andBooker also were among the Top 100 in the poll, but so were Susan Boyle, Beyonce,Lada Gaga and Betty White – all of whom received more votes than Governor Christieand the Mayor of New Jersey’s largest city. To put it another way, in the eyesof the public, Susan Boyle, Beyonce, Lada Gaga and Betty White are moreinfluential than Chris Christie and Cory Booker.

Grantedthe online poll was not a scientific measure, but it wasn’t TMZ or Entertainment Weekly asking their readers to cast votes. It was Time, the world's largest weekly newsmagazine.

Onecould also argue that, since the editors of Timeare journalists involved with covering the news, their sense of who isinfluential is more on target than that of the public. But even if this istrue, it may no longer matter in today’s media environment. News content isincreasingly being determined – not by journalists and by news value butinstead by companies and individuals with the technological expertise to matchcontent with audience preferences. As a result, the news industry is in dangerof losing control of its future.

“In a media world whereconsumers decide what news they want to get and how they want to get it, thefuture will belong to those who understand the public’s changing behavior andcan target content and advertising to snugly fit the interests of each user,” Tom Rosenstiel and Amy Mitchell wrote in the Project for Excellence in Journalism’smost recent State of theMedia report. “That knowledge – and the expertise in gathering it –increasingly resides with technology companies outside journalism.”

Since nearly all newsorganizations rely heavily on revenue from advertisers to support theiroperations and to generate profits, the ability to connect advertisers has longbeen a fundamental component of successful media companies. In the 21^stCentury, however, technology has emerged as a new and more effectiveintermediary.

“Of the many changesthat the Internet has delivered to the nation's newsrooms, the ability tomeasure traffic for a given story, blog or video may be among the mostprofound,” Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi wrote in a September 2010 article for American Journalism Review.

Farhi said The Post has used items “with dubious ortenuous news value,” such as celebrity photo galleries, polls and trendingtopics on Twitter and Google to draw people to its website:

“High-minded headlinesand stories about foreign wars, the federal deficit or environmental despoilagemight have paid the bills in the age of Murrow and Cronkite, but they only goso far these days,” he wrote. “Shark videos and ‘naked Lady Gaga’ headlines getmajor play on ‘serious’ news sites for an obvious and no longer terriblyshocking reason: They draw traffic.”

While such practices maystill raise eyebrows inside newsrooms of journalism stalwarts such as The Washington Post, newer organizationshave put policies into place that leave little room for discretion overcontent.

In a recent Los Angeles Times column,longtime journalist Tim Rutten shared the contents of a memo from AOL’s chiefexecutive officer, Tim Armstrong, in which Armstrong instructed the company’snews editors to use website traffic, profitability and editing turnaround timeto evaluate potential stories. “Note all the things that come before thequality of the work or its contribution to the public interest and you'vearrived at an essential difference between journalism and content,” Ruttenwrote.

All of this represents afundamental change – not just for the media, but also for how the agenda is setfor public policy. Hundreds of research studies have found that when newsorganizations placed attention on an issue, it resulted in increased attentionfrom the public, as well as from government leaders whose actions and decisionsdetermine public policy. But now the agenda-setting role appears to be shiftingfrom journalists to the citizenry.

In arelatively short period of time, the technological advances provided by theInternet have dramatically altered the manner in which news is reported andconsumed. As technology continues to advance, it could very well have an evengreater impact on the actual content of news itself.

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Richard A. Lee is Communications Director of the HallInstitute. A former State House reporter and Deputy CommunicationsDirector for the Governor, he also teaches courses in media, politics andgovernment at Rutgers University, where he is completing work on a Ph.D. inmedia studies. Read more of Rich’s columns at richleeonline and follow himon Twitter.