The blogosphere was in a bit of tizzy yesterday regarding Norman Spector's article regarding blogs. As usual Small Dead Animals has an excellent roundup on the subject. I, on the other hand, think Mr. Spector is mostly harmless.
I actually prefer the balanced take on blogs in the fancily Post this morning courtesy of Paul Kedrosky.
...So why does blogging feel so ripe for a takedown? It is mostly the outsized claims of its promoters. Far from destroying mainstream media (what bloggers have christened MSM), blogs mostly augment traditional media. They draw attention to overlooked stories, they create a forum for wild-eyed discussion, they are a kind of feeder system for other media outlets.
But you wouldn't know that from reading some prominent bloggers. They loudly argue that blogs are the new journalism and that traditional media is dead but hasn't noticed. That is, of course, silly. Blogs - those crosses between diaries and opinion-centric single-editor newspapers - are not really replacements for newspapers. They are more like highly specialized pilot fish that attach themselves to the existing media. After all, most don't report, so they require someone else to generate things worth commenting on.
I agree with this. The sentitment that "the revolution will be blogged" is a bit overblown for me. I am not a reporter. I am not a columnist. Most of the time I'm a crank. But I do have fun with it. Can blogs change the world? On their own, no. It is a subset of the Internet, which is clearly already changing the world. Blogs are a tag-along.
...Then again, there are some siren songs out there. Perhaps the best example is Matt Drudge's Drudge Report, which made its name having nearly brought down the Clinton administration in the United States over the Monica Lewinsky affair. Estimates vary, but one widely-read publication argued not long ago that Drudge's two-man operation (with no investors) generated more than US$1-million in profits from advertising. That's not bad for a blog.
Since the Drudge Report is not a blog, this proves my point. Drudge Report is a webpage that links to media stories. His type of site is iIndispensable to bloggers but he is not a blogger. He has been around for 10 years, so he very much pre-dates the blogging phenomena (if it is even that). Again, it the Internet that is the revolution.
A friend asked me over the weekend why I blog. I don't have a great answer. I am a very curious person (you could say in both senses of the word, but I won't) by nature and this blog represents me learning out loud. I am also an opinionated person, so this kind of comes naturally. I think Meatriarchy has the definitive word on this topic. Deep down it is not about changing the world it is about becoming famous, if even a little. We may not admit it but watching our traffic grow is buzz inducing.
But that is just my 2 cents. I judging by how well my Google Ads do, that is all this post is worth.
Update: "now when I yell, the radio hears me". That's a great line, courtesy of Ms. McMillan at Small Dead Animals.
