I am a firm believer in reading and absorbing research and surveys done nationally for how old and new media interact. There are lessons to be learned from this national research on how we should interact in our own communities.

The merging of old and new media continues to play out in the world of journalism.  No longer do people just read the New York Times or Wall Street Journal for news, but also a growing number of online entities such as HuffingtonPost, Drudge, TechCruch, GigaOm, and even social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. In our own communities this could mean the community paper, Twitter, Facebook and micro news websites.

Earlier this year, Pew Research Center issued a report analyzing this trend and examining how blogs and social media agendas relate and differ from traditional press.  The report, New Media, Old Media, takes into consideration a year’s worth of analysis, making it very in-depth.  It answers the various questions that are increasingly becoming difficult to track, such as “What types of news stories do consumers share and discuss the most? What issues do they have less interest in? What is the interplay of the various new media platforms? And how do their agendas compare with that of the mainstream press?”

Some highlights from the report include:

• News today is increasingly a shared, social experience
• In less than one third of the weeks did the blogosphere and traditional press share the same top story
• The stories and issues that gain traction in social media differ substantially from those that lead in the mainstream press, but they also differ greatly between social media platforms
• Of the three social platforms tracked in the survey – blogs, Twitter and YouTube – they only shared the same top story once
• Bloggers gravitated toward stories that elicited emotion, concerned individual or group rights or triggered ideological passion and unlike other forms of media, don’t favor one partisanship
• Traditional media news agendas are more event-driven and institutional
• While most original reporting still comes from traditional journalists, technology makes it increasingly possible for the actions of citizens to influence a story’s total impact
• 44% of online news users get news at least a few times a week through emails, automatic updates or posts from social networking sites
• In 2009, Twitter’s monthly audience increased by 200%

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We all know the feeling of getting the page in the wee hours to respond to an incident that requires the attention of the public information office.

 The attempted car bombing that took place in Times Square in NYC on Saturday evening is one such type of incident where the split second coordination of internal and external information to and from many departments is required.

There is an interesting story in today’s Wall Street Journal that looks at how the flow of information reached Mayor Bloomberg who was in Washington attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. It’s a great snapshot of how information moves and decisions are made.

 Bloomberg Tracked Times Square News From White House Gala

By Michael Howard Saul, Wall Street Journal

For a New York City mayor, who is expected to be on the job 24 hours a day, there’s nothing worse than being out of town when a major incident in the city occurs.

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg first learned there was a car bomb in Times Square Saturday night, he was mingling with power brokers just feet away from President Barack Obama at the annual black-tie White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who also attended the celebrity-studded dinner, first learned about the incident at roughly 7:15 p.m., aides to the mayor confirmed Sunday. Police in New York had begun investigating the suspicious vehicle around 6:30 p.m.

Kelly personally briefed the mayor shortly after 8 p.m. At the time, the mayor was socializing at a table directly under the podium in the center of a massive ballroom filled with Washington’s elite and assorted hangers-on. Bloomberg was feet away from the president.

Over the course of the next three hours, as law enforcement officials in New York investigated the incident and its seriousness and scope became clear, Kelley, along with members of the mayor’s and commissioner’s detail, kept Bloomberg updated.

At one point during the dinner, the head of Kelly’s detail was crouched on the floor behind Bloomberg, giving him an update. The mayor was seated next to Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Maria Cantwell of Washington.

After the dinner, Bloomberg had planned to attend the Vanity Fair Bloomberg Party. The mayor and his group never made it there. When the dinner ended around 11 p.m., Bloomberg and his entourage headed directly to the airport. Aides said the mayor was disinclined to leave before the president spoke.

The mayor’s private plane departed for New York City shortly before midnight. In addition to the mayor, the passengers included Kelly; the mayor’s girlfriend, Diana Taylor; mayoral press secretary Stu Loeser; a member of the mayor’s advance team, Jamie Lee; and several police officers.

The plane landed at LaGuardia Airport at 12:35 a.m. Sunday. The mayor headed directly to Times Square for a briefing from law enforcement officials before he addressed the media at around 2:15 a.m.

“We were very lucky,” Bloomberg said. “We avoided what could have been a very deadly event.”

The mayor returned to his upper East Side townhouse around 3:30 a.m.

At 7 a.m., Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano phoned Mr. Bloomberg to discuss the incident and the investigation. Throughout the day on Sunday, the mayor received numerous updates from law enforcement officials. He spoke with Obama in the afternoon.

It was not the first time that a New York mayor was outside the five boroughs when a crisis hit the city.

In February 1993, when a car bomb was detonated below the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, then-Mayor David Dinkins was on an official trip to Japan. That evening, Dinkins addressed New Yorkers via satellite television, and, then, he rushed back to the city.

In 2006, when cops fatally shot Sean Bell, an unarmed bridegroom on the day of his wedding, Bloomberg was believed to spending time at his vacation home in Bermuda. The mayor busily worked the phones and assured elected officials he was monitoring the incident.

With modern technology, aides to the mayor have long said, he is able to keep in touch and monitor situations, no matter where he is in the world.

The mayor is scheduled to have dinner tonight with Mounted Police Officer Wayne Rhatigan, who played a key role in ensuring the incident wasn’t any worse. The mayor has also invited the street vendor who spotted the car smoking, but it was unclear later Sunday afternoon whether he would be able to attend.

The mayor will be dining at Blue Fin in the heart of Times Square.

“He likes to make a point of showing New York is open for business,” Loeser said.

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