Bloggers -v- The Media
They’re finally getting the picture. ‘Mainstream’ journalists, that is.
They’re beginning to understand that when it comes to disseminating news and information, the Internet, and not the traditional offline print and electronic media outlets, is where it’s at.
Writers and researchers have been raiding the Net for years, grabbing material and presenting it as their own. But that’s changing.
"In the 2004 election, the boys (and girls) on the bus have been joined by a new class of political arbiters," writes Kathy Kiely in USA TODAY here
She’s referring to "the geeks on their laptops. They call themselves bloggers. Their mission: to remake political journalism and, quite possibly, democracy itself. The plan: to run an end around big media by becoming publishers on the Internet."
She’s mostly correct, except for a couple of very minor points. They don’t call themselves bloggers: they are bloggers. And they’re not planning an end around big media by becoming publishers on the Internet. They’ve been doing it for years.
All that’s changed is Big Media is being forced to admit it’s no longer the only game in town, and that Town is now in CyberSpace, which is totally unfamiliar territory to many, if not most, of the dinosaurs writing for the major outlets.
"The freewheeling, gossipy Internet sites they operate can be controversial," says Kiely. "Matt Drudge, the wired news and gossip hound who broke the story about Monica Lewinsky’s affair with Bill Clinton, is a blogger. Many bloggers are not professional journalists. Few have editors. Most make no pretense of objectivity.
"Yet they’re forcing the mainstream news media to follow the stories they’re pushing, such as the scandal that took down Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. And they’ve created a trend that almost every major presidential candidate is following. Even President Bush’s campaign Web site hosts a blog."
Blogs take the media, "out of the hands of the corporate world and puts it into the hands of guys with computers," ‘political activist and Washington lobbyist’ Ellen Miller is quoted as saying.
And as Jay Rosen, a blogger and the chairman of New York University’s journalism department, puts it, "Readers are becoming writers".
Moreover, "Professional writers who have turned to blogs say they enjoy the freedom," the USA TODAY report continues, quoting Mickey Kaus, whose Kausfiles.com was one of the earliest political blogs, as saying, "It’s a chance to get rid of editors and get rid of deadlines and to write about what I want to write about."
But, Kiely points out, the new and old media aren’t always a comfortable fit and, "Sacramento Bee editorial columnist Dan Weintraub’s blogging raised tensions in the Bee newsroom during the California gubernatorial recall campaign. Reporters at the newspaper protested that his popular blog, California Insider, didn’t have to undergo as much scrutiny as their copy. Now he has to submit it to an editor."
Ooops.
Hollywood, which either owns or controls much of the media directly or indirectly through advertising dollars, and which consequently wields an obscene amount of influence and political power, doesn’t like that.
But, adds the report, the biggest raves come from bloggers who have found a voice they never had before. Tom Bevan, a former advertising executive, turned to full-time blogging after a Web site he helped found, RealClearPolitics.com, took off. Bevan, 34, has no experience in politics or journalism. But he says he knows from the feedback that "a lot of influential opinion-makers" are benefiting from his views.
"That’s one of the fantastic things about the blogosphere and the Internet," Bevan says. "If you have something to say that’s interesting, you will eventually be heard."
