“Make way for the bloggers- they give us news with attitude”
The above was the top, across the entire page headline, in the Austin paper’s Friday the 23d edition,
Gary Chapman, who teaches at the University of Texas in Austin and writes an occassional column for the Austin American Statesman, the daily paper, bemoans the fact that, “The hyper-linked character of e-mail and the Web lead heavy Internet users to a diversity of information sources that older people find difficult to to grasp.”
I’m older than most of the blogging contributors to Blogcritics and I have to assume that he overlooked the simple fact that the world extends beyond his classroom or Austin, Texas for that matter.
Yes, Gary, the are many folks out in the real world that can write and have valuable opinions and one of these days, in the not too distant future, the politicians and their controlled media will awaken to the fact that we are real tax paying, voters who have friends and family that have not succumbed to the pap disgorged on a daily basis by the boob tube and the local parrot cage, fish wrappers.
I mentioned that I was a bit older than many of the contributors to this great blog and to support this I will turn 80 this November 1. I also would like to share that I have been a practicing professional journalist since back in the 50’s.
I will watch and read with great interest the comments from the 35 bloggers that have been “granted crredentials” to the National Democratic Convention, next week.
I hope that Blogritics can locate these blog sites and publish them so that we can share their wisdom and comments with the rest of the civilized world.
Article comments
1 - mike hollihan
The speed with which cable television news is absorbing blogs now is leading them to do it the same old way.
Bloggers are there to give "edge" and "attitude," to speak truth to power the way that political discussion shows once were thought to do. Bloggers are the new "panel of experts" that anchors will throw to for "expert opinion."
Tom Brokaw will intone to the panel moderator, who will be an established network commentator or talking head, "Bob, what is the blogosphere saying about John Kerry's performance here tonight?"
As it does with everything, the broadcast news media is deforming blogs to fit into an already established template. How many bloggers will resist and how many will fall for the allure of an audience of millions?
2 - RJ
The reason the mainstream media is successful has just about nothing to do with how good they write or how insightful their opinions are. The fact is, they have a large audience.
The hundreds of thousands of Bloggers out there can never hope to have such an audience.
The few Blogs that DO have a massive audience wind up forming some sort of alliance with Big Media.
Blogs are like a farm team. The cream of the crop will rise to enter Big Media. The rest are just talking to a small number of people, and will get little or no attention.
That's why I'm so proud to be a member of BlogCritics. This is a major Blog. We get real attention. And I play a small role in that.
The mainstream media will perhaps one day absorb BC. If this occurs, BC will not have "sold out" but merely proved its success.
That being said, my own personal Blog gets less than 10 hits a day, but I still enjoy posting there. It's a form of venting, a public diary of opinion and anecdotes.
Viva La Blog! :)
3 - geekgirl2
The blogging phenomenon is like that of pamphleteers in the late 18th & early 19th centuries. We provide an alternate news & discussion source to a recently literate (technology-wise) society. Over time big media will try to take over but as long as we can retain a free internet there will be a place for open discussion of all types. Once a free internet disappears we will be forced to move to peer-to-peer networks. Silencing the voice of the people is not easy.
4 - Gene
Try a one sided view with more censoring than cartoon morning on network tv. Mr. 80 year old what is crredential? Or were you just straining to shit while spelling credential, kind of like crrrrrrdential! Aw, I feel much better.
I guess that is why the last time I checked with various web ranking sites all major news providers were ranked in the top 250 or better while blogcritics ranked around 23,000, worst than many porn sites.
5 - jim andrews
Thanks for reading the column. I'll have to oil my spel chek more frequently.
6 - Eric Olsen
"worse than many porn sites" - this is hardly an insult. As RJ says, what the major news sites have is visibility and built-in marketing via their other media outlets, hence, traffic. We are less than two years old, have zero marketing budget, are where we are strictly based upon word of mouth. I am very pleased with our progress and anticipate increasingly better things ahead.
7 - Gene
Yeah I meant "worse" and wrote "worst".
It wasn't intended as an insult it is merely a fact. Every post turns in to a lberal crying over something whether it is a gay issue or just "feeling bullied by conservatives". Kind of like this is a haven for the persecuted democrats to come and lick their damned wounds.
If this was more balanced with right and left it would be one of the greatest sites for reasonable debate of current issues. Unfortunately I have noticed how people are labled as bigots, homophobes, racsist etc if their views aren't in line with the extreme left.
Very sad. This nation consist of more than a few angry gays who don't eat meat. [edited]
8 - RJ
"worse than many porn sites" - this is hardly an insult. As RJ says, what the major news sites have is visibility and built-in marketing via their other media outlets, hence, traffic. We are less than two years old, have zero marketing budget, are where we are strictly based upon word of mouth. I am very pleased with our progress and anticipate increasingly better things ahead.
Better said than what I was talking about, Eric, but we essentially agree.
I just hope that, when BC becomes even MORE successful and is purchased from Eric by a major media conglomerate, Eric will be kind enough to demand a sort-of "grandfather clause" that allows ACTIVE amateur BCs (such as myself) the ability to continue contributing.
I think it would be great fun to "compete" with professional critics on this site.
Whose posts do you think would elicit a stronger response? Some dork from Rolling Stone, Vogue, or SLATE, or me, Mac Diva, and Al Barger? ;)