'Parasites' find a champion
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 | 08:28 AM ET
by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online
Try as we might, it seems we can't escape the idea that bloggers are parasites. We certainly don't like the notion since we count ourselves among the ranks of those seeking out new, informative and even quirky and whimsical things online, comparing and contrasting them with other finds, throwing in some original reporting and research and sharing it all with anyone who cares to read it.
It's nice to see we're not alone.
Robert Niles, editor of the Online Journalism Review, takes a look at the aspersions cast on bloggers – mainly by professional journalists working for daily newspapers.
The charge riles me every time I hear it. To me, it's a poorly informed insult of many hard-working Web publishers who are doing fresh, informative and original work. And by dismissing blogs as "parasitic," newspaper journalists make themselves blind to the opportunities that blogging, as well as independent Web publishing in general, offer to both the newspaper industry and newspaper journalists.
Niles surveys a broad swath of experts that include bloggers, university professors and professional journalists – including some who fit all three descriptions. Boing Boing editor Cory Doctorow, Yahoo News editor-in-chief Neil Budde and BlogHer.org's Lisa Stone are among those who offer their perspectives in Niles' essay.
A dispassionate look at the evidence flies in the face of the parasitism claim, he says:
There exist thousands of blogs and websites devoted to topics that so-called "mainstream" media fails to cover. By dismissing all blogs as derivative of their own coverage, newspaper journalists reaffirm the cultural myopia that has caused them to miss issues and passions that are of deeply felt interest to so many former, or potential, newspaper readers. ...Instead of dismissing the blogs and websites to which their former readers and viewers are flocking, newspaper and TV journalists ought to be asking themselves what those blogs are doing that *they* could be doing to get those readers back.
At least one bastion of the mainstream media may have clued in to this.
The Economist ("don't call us a magazine") newspaper has launched a sort of Skunk Works-type of black box undertaking called Project Red Stripe (no, not that one), in which it has charged six people with "creating an innovative and web-based product, service or business model by July 2007."
No one on the Red Stripe team knows what that might be, but they're not ruling out some sort of blog-like service, and are inviting people to tell the team what they want the effort to produce – through a blog.
Whatever the future of journalism – and by extension blogging – may be, one thing seems to be clear: It's all up to you.
« Previous Post | Main | Next Post »
This discussion is now Open. Submit your Comment.
« Previous Post | Main | Next Post »
Post a Comment
Tech Bytes »
Recent Posts
- Jesse Brown: Worldwide copyfight heats up down under
- Wednesday, February 25, 2009
- Alas, that’s not Atlantis, Google says
- Monday, February 23, 2009
- Jesse Brown: Government strangely closed about open source
- Thursday, February 19, 2009
- Is traffic management working?
- Thursday, February 19, 2009
- Jesse Brown: Last chance to chime in on Net Neutrality
- Wednesday, February 11, 2009
- Subscribe to Tech Bytes
Archives
- February 2009 (10)
- January 2009 (12)
- December 2008 (10)
- November 2008 (10)
- October 2008 (9)
- September 2008 (4)
- August 2008 (4)
- July 2008 (16)
- June 2008 (9)
- May 2008 (12)
- April 2008 (15)
- March 2008 (13)
- February 2008 (13)
- January 2008 (47)
- December 2007 (12)
- November 2007 (12)
- October 2007 (17)
- September 2007 (18)
- August 2007 (17)
- July 2007 (27)
- June 2007 (18)
- May 2007 (28)
- April 2007 (25)
- March 2007 (28)
- February 2007 (25)
- January 2007 (35)
- December 2006 (25)
Comments
C McCoy
Edmonton
In every field of human endeavor, it seems the dinosaurs are always the last to perceive that their extinction is - gasp - possible. Given the age demographics of newspaper readership, newspaper journalists should do the math, see if it will die before their retirement. If they're old enough, perhaps it's no real problem. If they're merely middle aged, a serious rethink is in order.
Posted March 14, 2007 04:53 PM