In his article, “News Erupts, and So Does a Web Debut,” David Carr looks critically at niche media like The Texas Tribune. While niche media’s strength resides in its specialization, in its appeal to a highly specific audience for a very narrow field, Carr tends to focus more on its inherent weakness, namely, that it is limited by its exclusivity. Although, in more positive terms, this very weakness may be its greatest strength; it is, after all, its defining quality.
Drawing on what recently transpired at Fort Hood, Carr provides the reader with an accessible context for the situation at hand. However, this story as a backdrop sheds niche media in a negative light. Carr writes: “And as a niche site with a very narrow focus, it can’t afford to change its spots just because a national event erupts 90 minutes away.”
“Can’t afford”? What about “has no need”? Niche media need not and should not “change its spots.” That would make the same point in more positive terms. But Carr does not take this stance.
Later, Carr writes, “The Tribune has yet to find a voice that makes state politics seem more like, say, the Oscars, but these are early days.” This is clearly a statement of opinion. Might not some seek political news presented as politics? The niche audience demanding this niche media probably is not the crowd that needs politics to be portrayed like the Oscars.
The main problem I found with Carr’s article was that he analyzed the niche media in terms of mass media. He could not grant niche media an independant life, an identity of its own. This translated into a seeming pervading bias against the way niche media like The Texas Tribune operate, but I would say it was less a matter of bias, and more an indication a certain incomprehension of what niche media truly is.