To My New Friends in the Media

Posted on July 30, 2004 by glasscastle

During the Democratic Convention the Dowbrigade (seen here with some
of his vegetable friends)
noticed a certain competetive distrust bordering on dislike between the
Bloggers and members of the more traditional media. Yesterday we tried
to understand the reasons the conventional media feel threatened by the
bloggers. Today we would like to address the Blogger’s distrust of old-line
media, and their occasional depiction as the evil empire which Bloggers
must dethrone.

Basically, get over it, Bloggers.  Conventional media is here to
stay. There is no way we can out-report the reporters. They are professionals,
and some of them are really good at what they do. They have
training, experience, and in many cases temperments, which we do not
and probably never will have.

Bloggers are different.  We specialize in Perspective. At an event
like the convention, we take our readers to the site of the news, give
them a texture and context to help them digest the news, let them feel
what it is like to be there.

One of our personal dreams for the maturation of the Blogosphere is
to arrive at a critical mass, a stage at which blogs will be so ubiquitous
that whenever something important, something newsworthy happens on the
planet, there will be a blogger nearby to give us that context, that
personal touch, that raw feed from the source.

Between events, we analyze, ridicule, parody, and recycle what others
write and report.  Often, we can see connections and follow story-trails
which would otherwise remain unexplored. At our best, we can offer a
variety of viewpoints unavailable in the mainstream media.

We will never replace conventional media, nor should we want to.  We
are not competing with them, we are augmenting them. If we find a way
to work together we can make the American people the best informed in
the world.
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15 Responses to To My New Friends in the Media

  1. Dingus McGee says:
    July 30, 2004 at 4:01 pm

    Bloggers do more than perspective. We are the sources the pros call when they want to find out what’s up. We’re the ones they misquote, or quote out of context, or make look like idiots. I wouldn’t be so sure they’ll be around much longer, they have to be pretty nimble to turn this corner. The smart ones will. The ones who sniff that they’re better than we are will be like the armadillo in the Cluetrain ad.

  2. Donald Larson says:
    July 30, 2004 at 5:02 pm

    Michael,

    I agree with your assessment of bloggers and conventional media.

    I may not always agree with what bloggers write, but I’m glad they take the time to do it.

    The really brave bloggers have a comments section. Do you find it interesting that some of the leaders in blogsphere don’t have a comments section on their blog?

    Thanks for having the insight and courage to have a comments section on yours.

    Don

  3. Corcoran says:
    July 30, 2004 at 9:09 pm

    “We specialize in Perspective. At an event like the convention, we take our readers to the site of the news, give them a texture and context to help them digest the news, let them feel what it is like to be there.”

    Gee, which blog was this? I missed it.

    Some beefs about the DMC blogs:

    (1) Laziness. There were few posts from most of the bloggers. WTF were they doing the whole time? Dave Winer even had the gall to say it was boring to be there. If he were taking it seriously and spending the time writing (or reporting), he wouldn’t have had the leisure to say it was boring. The bloggers were just not taking it seriously, but rather treating it like some kind of vacation.

    (2) Too self-absorbed and undisciplined. Why were bloggers appearing on TV and radio shows–when they had no postings on their blogs? When someone dropped by to interview him, how about replying, “Sorry, I’m busy,” or “Sorry, I’m working.”

  4. Mom says:
    August 1, 2004 at 12:56 am

    Gosh, I wish I had had that cage in the backyard when you were growing up. Love, Mom

  5. Stefanie says:
    September 2, 2005 at 2:40 pm

    Veri nice site!

Comments are closed.