Parasitic scrapbooking
I've been reading a PR blog ever since I went to a recent alumni event. I'm mostly interested in how blogs (and social media in general) can be implemented into the larger PR strategy of an enterprise. Well today, I learned I'm wasting my time on this whole blogging thing; I could just as well be out there playing paintball (which sounds like a heck of a lot more fun).
Blogging, in and of itself, is of no special media or cultural significance. Most bloggers are, in effect, hobbyists – and what they do is more akin to the hugely popular hobby of scrapbooking than it is to journalism or criticism. To give an analogy, the mere fact that a large number of people wargame, paintball or engage in military re-enactments is of no significance to the Pentagon or defense policy. I think the msm-execs who are rushing to embrace the blogosphere are blinded by technology into confusing what is culturally interesting with what is culturally significant.
also, it seems like we're bloodsuckers:
Overwhelmingly, the influence is one way – bloggers are media parasites. Very few bring something original to the fray, largely because the nature of the medium is about commenting on rather than creating something.
Both of these are from Trevor Butterworth in an interview on The Flack BLOG!
Not sure why commenting on a news story or blog post is getting a bad rap. Surely hearing someone else's view on a story enhances my understanding of it or makes me question my own views. Often a post's comments will raise important issues that the author of the original piece may have neglected. Importantly, comments make the interaction bi-directional; the reader is not an inactive recipient of information, but rather participating in a discussion. Perhaps that causes some in mainstream media to feel they are losing their monopoly on the truth. Maybe that's the reason for the name calling.
Blogging, in and of itself, is of no special media or cultural significance. Most bloggers are, in effect, hobbyists – and what they do is more akin to the hugely popular hobby of scrapbooking than it is to journalism or criticism. To give an analogy, the mere fact that a large number of people wargame, paintball or engage in military re-enactments is of no significance to the Pentagon or defense policy. I think the msm-execs who are rushing to embrace the blogosphere are blinded by technology into confusing what is culturally interesting with what is culturally significant.
also, it seems like we're bloodsuckers:
Overwhelmingly, the influence is one way – bloggers are media parasites. Very few bring something original to the fray, largely because the nature of the medium is about commenting on rather than creating something.
Both of these are from Trevor Butterworth in an interview on The Flack BLOG!
Not sure why commenting on a news story or blog post is getting a bad rap. Surely hearing someone else's view on a story enhances my understanding of it or makes me question my own views. Often a post's comments will raise important issues that the author of the original piece may have neglected. Importantly, comments make the interaction bi-directional; the reader is not an inactive recipient of information, but rather participating in a discussion. Perhaps that causes some in mainstream media to feel they are losing their monopoly on the truth. Maybe that's the reason for the name calling.
posted by Mark Crofton at
6:39 PM
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