I don't get why this study is trying to draw big conclusions through comparing stories published by mainstream news outlets and stories that are popular on social news sites heavily, heavily skewed towards geeks.
As the cliche goes... apples vs. oranges.
The guy doing the study even says this about the inherently different foci of the two:
"This technology bias was partly down to the fact that it was early adopters of technology that lead the way when it came to 'playing with the potential of the internet to empower users', said Mr Rosenstiel.
Once "citizen journalizm" gains widespread popularity, expect reddit and digg have their front pages occupied by Paris Hilton news, fart stories, soft porn and updates on mysteries of Anna Nicole's tragic death.
The full report also says that international news is more prominent in the MSM than on social news sites, which is probably more evidence in favor of your point.
Big international stories are the ones where major news outlets can still add some significant value (although Lebanese bloggers from last summer might beg to differ), but I think you're right that this report doesn't mean much for them one way or the other.
"It found that the interests of users was markedly different to that of traditional editors."
By saying this the author makes a couple of assumptions:
1) By users, the author seems to imply the same people who use mainstream media. But really, in this case, "users" are dedicated communities built around digg, reddit and delicious -- which explains the propensity for technology related news items.
2) It could be that users dont prefer to promote mainstream news stories simply because old school media is an existing reliable source of such stories. For example, you could rely on BBC and CNN to report the latest natural disaster -- digg and reddit dont have to do this for their users.
One of the biggest differences noted by the researchers was the emphasis put on a single story. While the mainstream media tended to revisit the same story from a different angle each day, users were happier dipping in to a variety of topics.
That's a big reason why I basically just never watch the news on TV.
"It was more hit and miss with a sense that they wanted to know a little about a lot of things," said Mr Rosenstiel.
Which is basically like the format of BBC World News Today (if it's still called that). It's a little bit about stuff going on all over the world. It's just the news, without all the self-important analysts clogging up airtime with commentary almost bad enough for YouTube.
As the cliche goes... apples vs. oranges.
The guy doing the study even says this about the inherently different foci of the two:
"This technology bias was partly down to the fact that it was early adopters of technology that lead the way when it came to 'playing with the potential of the internet to empower users', said Mr Rosenstiel.