| Friday, February 18, 2005 |
| Why Blogs Are Like Tulips |
Bill Powers has a good article up over at the National Journal comparing the current obsession and popularity of bloggers and the blogosphere to the Dutch Tulip frenzy, or the Dot.com boom of the nineties.
MSM, journalism and politics are all being shaped and changed by this phenomenon. It's created a new dynamic. A new playing field with a new set of rules, and those rules aren't always as clear as say, in a game of chess. It's more like Dungeons and Dragons or other fantasy games where themes are laid out, but the players create the game as it unfolds based on scenarios, the choices they make, and sheer imagination. I should also point out that the immediacy that the internet affords also makes this a game of lightning speed rounds where the facts and opinions can change before you hit the "comment" button on a new post.
I commented on the NYT article a few days ago about the growing influence of blogs - especially as it relates to journalism, and the fact that some in the MSM seem a bit scared (OK - "alarmed" is the word they used), in some circles about all the attention and scrutiny bloggers are paying them. As Powers says:
And why are we having all this intra-media warfare, anyway? Because we can, and because it's good for us. Anyone who isn't exhilarated by the bloggers and the havoc they're wreaking has lost touch with what American journalism at its best has always been about: making trouble to get at the truth. I couldn't agree more. Still, he cautions that MSM shouldn't worry too much. As I've stated before, without the economic model to support blogging, it will, and has reshaped the media landscape, but it ain't gonna replace the MSM anytime soon. It can't. Relax big guys. Powers again:
Still, is this really a revolution? Bloggers are a fantastic addition to the media club, but I don't see them taking it over. So far they've proven adept at several tasks: 1) bird-dogging factual errors and other crimes that the mainstreamers are ignoring; 2) speaking in a chatty, irreverent voice that's refreshing after decades of stilted establishment formality; and 3) having fun -- a skill the mainstreamers lost long ago Yep, pretty much. And I'd be remiss in not hat tipping Gawker for the article.
UPDATE: Jack Shafer over at Slate offers additional opinions about the article that I think are worth sharing. Next time he's in Washington, I'm going to invite Powers over for dinner. The first course will be a tulip salad drenched in lemon castor oil. And that quote, right there, is why the blogosphere is so much fun to watch. Especially since the Shafer review was posted at 3:47 pm and Powers' article hit the net at about 2:00 this afternoon. However, in response to Shafer's assertion that bloggers CAN and DO have access to the "resources" afforded major media outlets, I still stand by the fact that the economic model does not, and will not - in the near future, exist to support bloggers in the way that it currently supports and promotes MSM. Seriously, what blogger can drop into a war zone with a camera crew and the logistics to support that?? At best, bloggers can report on the feed from other bloggers feeding from a region (i.e. Iraq) and promote those stories on the internet, but without BEING there to verify them, research them, and develop balanced views - they are simply passing along second hand info - and THAT is not journalism. There is still too much "parroting" going on in the blogosphere to make much of it original "news", but it has earned a VERY important place in MSM as a watchdog and another check and balance to the public. And that's a very good thing indeed. |
posted by Broadsheet @ 5:00 PM   |
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| 1 Editorial Opinions: |
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Just a couple thoughts (offered somewhat sheepishly, in that I haven't yet read ANY of the material referenced)....
Not to split hairs, but there very much IS an "economic model" that looks quite capable of supporting bloggers (by "supporting," I mean paying a living wage for several thousand and good beer money for the rest). That model is pageview-based micropayment.
What does NOT currently exist is an effective technological implementation of that model. Even in this sphere, there are plenty of "technological models" but we are simply at a point where it isn't compelling enough for anyone with sufficient resources to implement that model.
Who might get there first? Frankly, I haven't thought THAT much about it. Not MSM, or its keepers, obviously. The credit card folks? Maybe.
But what if an aggressive, ambitious, still somewhat altruistic multi-billion dollar company started building an infrastructure with just the kind of granularity and targeted marketing features that could someday dovetail perfectly with micropayment-per-view supported publishing.
That company is of course Google and gmail -- with its massive storage and infrastructure for individually-targeted marketing -- looks a damn lot like a mighty big ecosystem that might someday serve as a sufficiently large incubator for real micropayment implementation.
SIDE NOTE: sure, bloggers won't parachute in to war zones on a regular basis, but the ten best blogs being produced by indigenous Iraqis far surpass the "journalism" produced by the vast majority of this country's small town papers and not a few of its larger ones.
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Just a couple thoughts (offered somewhat sheepishly, in that I haven't yet read ANY of the material referenced)....
Not to split hairs, but there very much IS an "economic model" that looks quite capable of supporting bloggers (by "supporting," I mean paying a living wage for several thousand and good beer money for the rest). That model is pageview-based micropayment.
What does NOT currently exist is an effective technological implementation of that model. Even in this sphere, there are plenty of "technological models" but we are simply at a point where it isn't compelling enough for anyone with sufficient resources to implement that model.
Who might get there first? Frankly, I haven't thought THAT much about it. Not MSM, or its keepers, obviously. The credit card folks? Maybe.
But what if an aggressive, ambitious, still somewhat altruistic multi-billion dollar company started building an infrastructure with just the kind of granularity and targeted marketing features that could someday dovetail perfectly with micropayment-per-view supported publishing.
That company is of course Google and gmail -- with its massive storage and infrastructure for individually-targeted marketing -- looks a damn lot like a mighty big ecosystem that might someday serve as a sufficiently large incubator for real micropayment implementation.
SIDE NOTE: sure, bloggers won't parachute in to war zones on a regular basis, but the ten best blogs being produced by indigenous Iraqis far surpass the "journalism" produced by the vast majority of this country's small town papers and not a few of its larger ones.