Being that this is the first political convention in the United States that is receiving extensive coverage in the blogging world, I would say that it is definetely a positive step in adding another branch of the media that while everyone posting has a bias, they most likely are not puppets of any sort. This does not hold true for ABC, NBC, FOX, etc.... so while we may have the credentials, i look forward to reading all the bloggers for the DNC!!!!!!

I agree that it is an exciting development, Karen, and the presence of bloggers may cause the mainstream media to try a little harder, pay a little better attention; and all of the attention is only good for blogs in general. I haven't seen a whole lot that is particularly riveting, thus far, though.

Eric,

I think the real value of the blogosphere is the synergy that occurs as individuals pass ideas along, adding their own thoughts, catching things that other don't, and generally educating themselves and others (hopefully) along the way. There are some very brilliant people out there (all of whom have a helluva lot more time than I do) who keep track of the media and have this ability to not only keep track of media mistakes, quirks, foibles, and gaffs, they also notice things that most of us miss.

Besides all of that, though, the fact is, blogging is booming overall because it's a medium like email which is very personal, as well as personalizable, but also with a social element. It's the most democratic thing to happen in a long time if you ask me, and you can expect to see the business world begin to adopt this trend because of it's ability to build instant communities of interest where community knowledge can be gathered for the benefit of wider audiences.

On the political side, I expect that by the 2008 campaign, every party will be actively offering blogging space (some do already) for supporters and likely mining the content for their campaigns. I think I need to write a white paper on this. :-)

Thanks,

David

david's right (hey, who thought i'd be sayin' that?!! ;-)

i'm looking forward to the day (if it ever comes) when coverage of blogging get's beyond the ignorant "what is a blog" stage.

a lot of the 'blogs' on more mainstream sites just seem like regular old journalism. nothin' wrong with that, it's just not the right flavor.

David and Mark, keen insight, I agree with you both

I imagine, because they are sort of cut off from the synergy when they are out there rooting around for an angle, that that is what is missing - you are correct that the blogosphere is much better in aggregate than piece by piece, which is part of what makes Blogcritics valuable, I think.

Mark,

I agree with you on the "regular journalism" comment. I know that when I established my blog that was my plan for the blog.

But then I saw the real value of blogs, the community-oriented nature of this technology and the ability to post my own insights on any issue that moves me. Even a lot of the journalists who started up blogs have moved away from a site where they republish articles to one where they comment on the media as a whole. Their comments are from the perspective of media insiders while ours are completely outside of traditional media.

It would be interesting to publish a yearly Blog Paper (White Papers are too traditional) on Blog trends. Maybe we could call it "Blog Trends." How unique! :-)

David

i think what really bugs me is the sneering dismissal of blogs.

sure, some bloggers can't write their way out of a paper bag. others can use an editor.

what kills me is to see an article about, say, software, in the local paper...where the writer (who CAN write well) clearly knows almost nothing about the topic. i see this all the time with "reports" about open source/linux vs. the microsoft world.

makes me wanta scream.

i think what really bugs me is the sneering dismissal of blogs.

What I think is interesting though, is that traditional journalists are paying increasing attention to the Blogosphere. Journalists seem to be spending more time mining the blogosphere for ideas and content, and there are quite a few now who regularly quote blogs.

The value for the journalist is that the blogosphere not only generates interesting ideas, but it also keeps track of traditional media. So a traditional journalist can get good ideas AND find out what other journalists are writing about.

Whether people acknowledge it or not, the blogosphere has a growing sphere of influence in the traditional media.

Thanks.

David

people will sneer whenever they feel threatened

Good point Eric. Well said.

David

thanks David