Journalistic Arrogance Over Blogs (by sarah)
Ok I am sick of hearing/reading journalists refering to blogs of ordinary people as rubbish, or writen badly or as having nothing of interest to convey. If that's how they feel then they shouldnt read the bloody things should they!
What do they think the majority of blogs are for? Yeah sure a few people fancy themselves as journalists and if purporting to be one then I suppose they should act as one, but most people aren't. Most people are writing blogs as a an online diary and message board so that their family and friends can share things with them instead of having to write thousands of emails and a couple of dozen letters! Sounds very efficient to me. Some of them use them to have discussions with people about stuff that matters to them - good on them.
Of course there are going to be the odd ones here and there who are just after revenue form the ads but they are very few indeed but this would only work with high profile sites and who has them? Oh the journalists!
The arrogance has astounded me, I have to say - I think the real problem is that blogs are altering the way news is spread amongst people. We are back to the essayist and everyone pretty much can have ago at it, at least in this country. I think that the arrogance masks the fear - fear that people like Tom Reynolds and Abby Lee are pipping the 'professional' writers at the post.
At the end of the day blogs are a form of expression for the people writing and most are understandable no matter how bad the spelling and grammar (hence people actually understand what I write! - well most of the time). They are not well crafted pieces of 'literature' for some micky mouse degree somewhere so why fret about it and make the people writing their hearts and souls out feel bad cos perhapse they type quicker in txt speak for example? If you dont like it dont read it!
If it was some formal piece of work then by all means moan but they are not! And I for one like to see all the diverse goings on that blogging allows us access to!
Sat 11th Nov 2006 12:06 pm 
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By Ella Gale, Fri 24th Nov 2006 @ 2:03 pm
I agree with what you said. The problem is the media (when they get bored) likes to run articles about the new freedom of press in the blogosphere. The idea that ordinary people in the right places can pip jornalists to the post by writing about what's going on around them. This is more to do with people in warzones or working in politics telling people what it's actually like without having to be approved by the press office. This does mean that these people get the 'scoop', but then their job is usually not jornalistic. This is all very cool, but then the media starts talking about with all these bloggers why would we need Jornalists. Which upsets them, of course, and there is the point that going to blogs for news does not necessarily mean that you are getting the big picture of events.
However, you are right that most blogs are people writing about their lives, and most are read by friends of theirs and a few people they meet on the internet that share their interests. Really, most are personal diaries / event diaries / discussion boards. In fact one columnist in the Sunday Times (columns being the old school blogs) said that the domestic was overtaking the porn for the largest share of internet sites. There are more sites and blogs about people's domestic lives than there are porn sites. So no longer is the internet a place full of pussy, it's a place full of pictures of kittens.