Ah, another journalist/pundit/commentator has decided to write on the phenomenum that is Blogging. And, as usual, the headline hints deliciously at the outlaw aspect of both bloggers and their sites.
Why this interest in the 21st century equivalent of the Thomas Payne pamphlets or the 1960's mimeographed underground press? Surely there is no perceived threat to such bastions of credibility and veracity as the traditional print outlets?
The outbreak and acceptance of the 24/7 cable news outlets has sounded the death knell of a lot of traditional newspapers, with their immediacy and the "flash-bang" of instant, controversial, visceral videos. Outlets like the NYTimes, Chicago Tribune, LATimes have steadily lost both readership and advertisers over the last several years, and a greal of those have shot straight over to CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. And in some small portion to the newsier blogs.
And there are as many reasons for people using the blogs as their news sources as there are people doing it.
People tired of hearing nothing but the media take on the WoT have begun to read people like Dr. Glen Reynolds' Instapundit, or the far reaching posters at Lucianne.com. Accessing Lucianne is like having hundreds of researchers at your beck and call, pouring over newspapers the world over for stories on every topic, from every viewpoint, 24 hours a day.
But it is the little bloggers that seem to attract the attention of the media the most. People who express opinions on everything from thong vs. total nudity, to the selection of the next president. Honestly, I haven't figured out why.
But every time they deign to cast their glance this way, we all see an increase in hits, and sometimes even find a few new regular readers. I guess this proves the old theatrical adage, that even a bad review is a good review. And so I must thank Regis Behe for whatever hits I may glean from his Entertainment section "piece" in today's Pittsburg.Live.
And Regis. If you're going to write copy on blogs or any other internet issues that references websites, have your editors place links where you reference sites. It's rude to do otherwise, and an inconvenience to your online readers.
Posted by Mamamontezz at July 6, 2004 10:24 AM