The Rise and Fall of Blogs 433
i-Love-to-blog writes "Blogs have revolutionized information delivery. They not only made the world much more smaller, but a lot more personal, united and un-afraid as well. Events like the September 11 attacks and the Iraq invasion made news channels take a back seat. Wired claimed blogs to be what Napster was to music. They even have a wager on Weblogs outranking the New York Times Web site by 2007. People got paid to blog. Then they got fired for that. Some lost money for blogging their ideas. Most just hand out links these days. When was the last time your favorite blogger talked sense? Have blogs reached a saturation point? Blogging burnout is a humorous look at the rise and fall of weblogs."
Rise and FALL? (Score:4, Interesting)
Seriously, the guy's daydreaming or something, as no matter how much he should wish for it to be so, blogs aren't going nowhere (unless, of course, the masses of bloggers somehow manage to cause the internet to collapse under its own weight -- which i doubt. But even if they do, then i'm sure someone will still start a LiveJournal-on-a-cow or something like that). They might not retain their current form, but still, blogs are here to stay. The traditional media -- newspapers, TV, radio -- will be the ones to go, if they don't adapt to the new situation. And this should please anyone that considers themselves a liberal person.
- [tt]
The Real Question is: (Score:5, Interesting)
Over-time (Score:5, Interesting)
I like the idea of a future where virtually everyone is putting their ideas down for others to read. As the internet generation gets older, I think it will be more common for everyone to keep a weblog. The benefit to business is huge... imagine if every office worker was required to spend a few minutes a week on a company weblog, posting their ideas for managers and others to look at, or maybe if there was a company message board setup like Slashdot?
Journals and blogs (Score:3, Interesting)
Sometimes there's news in a blog, too. When news happens to a journal-keeper (e.g. you suddenly find yourself living in a war zone), your journal may well become a blog. A blog could also have news if it's for something other than world news. When a sourceforge developer posts daily news updating his progress, I'd call that a blog rather than a journal. Same with a politician recording his daily meetings.
The smaller the target audience, the more I'd call it a "journal" and less of a "blog". Most people think of "blogs" in terms of world news, for the largest possible audience. Since 99.999% of journal keepers live where there is little news of interest to the outside world, those who wish to be bloggers mostly get to write opinions rather than news. Those can be interesting, especially if you happen to find one who is very insightful.
The difference becomes one of the writer's attitude rather than the actual content. I keep a journal, and sometimes post political analysis, but it's only for my friends, and it's mixed in with other personal or random crap. The same political analysis, word for word, posted with the intent of attracting attention and discussion, would be a blog.
I'm not getting these definitions from a dictionary; it's my analysis of how I've seen the words used. YMMV.
Re:Point of blogs (Score:1, Interesting)
I sometimes wish I had done that. Unfortunately, I met my current gf through my site. Now I can't write much of anything, since so much of what I do involves her, and she doesn't want me writing about her.
Next time I'll keep it secret. Hell, I'm posting this anonymously because I know she googles for my nicks...
Re:Is variety so bad? (Score:3, Interesting)
That's why it's a problem. If those blogs could somehow be removed from searches for useful blogs (topical index, maybe?), then everyone could be happy.
Re:Rise and FALL? (Score:2, Interesting)
Seriously since I *really* learned how to used Google I've not had this problem. I know that the Google Hacking for Pen Testers book is touted as a security thing, and it does well there also. But it is also a really good way to improve your google-fu.
Re:Rise and FALL? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Rise and FALL? (Score:3, Interesting)
Traditional media is full of propaganda, not only because the government occasionally directly demands it, but because if journalists print the truth they often get sued, fired or both. Or they lose their sources because they're deemed too dangerous to talk too and thus their career is over, soon to be replaced by another journalist who's willing to "play ball".
Traditional media also censors huge amounts of newsworthy stories because they are vulnerable to ridiculous lawsuits from companies damaged by the truth. There was a very high-profile example of this in recent history when reporters with high journalistic standards tried to do an expose on Monsanto.
There are also lots of instances of traditional media being skewed by the owners of the companies to further their own personal and political agendas. For example, CanWest, one of the two major media conglomorates in Canada has centralized editorials which are intentionally biased towards their ideology and published nation wide, and they have repeatedly fired reporters and editors who fail to fall into line. Although I am not as well informed about them, Fox News is another that I understand does this.
Traditional media used to consist of a multitiude of small media outlets that reported the truth as best they were able, and if they did not, it was easy to determine that this was the case because there were a multitude of sources for news that you could compare them against. But in modern times, the media is controlled by only a few large organizations and that safeguard is largely removed.
Blogs are shit as news sources go. They're not generally created by competent writers or subjected to editorial review, and they have absolutely no credibility when it comes to presenting an unbiased viewpoint. Their strength, however, lies in the fact that they are not centrally controlled, so by weeding through them with a critical eye you can move towards the truth.
In my opinion, traditional media still has a place in our world, but not in the form that it has evolved into. Large, centrally consolidated media conglomorates need to fall, or they need to operate in a fashion where they serve the function of making the news and editorials created by a vast multitude of smaller media outlets easier for the public to weed through more effectively. If there is another way for a huge media outlet to operate and be trustworthy, I don't see it.
As it stands now, they aren't a source of news and truth, they're a source of propaganda, and people are becoming more and more aware of that fact and thus turning their attention elsewhere. Like to blogs. Until and unless the media outlets cease to be a source of propaganda and earn the publics trust, people will turn to alternates like blogs in ever increasing numbers because for all their flaws, they're all we've got.
My Primary Source of News on 9/11 (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually mine was Slashdot and Slashdot is a blog. I don't watch TV and I get most of my news online. Slashdot happened to be the only news-ish website that wasn't buckling under the weight of the traffic on 9/11.
Re:Journals and blogs (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Rise and FALL? (Score:2, Interesting)
So the entire world can go elsewhere and ignore my blog completely and we'll all be very happy without me having to "leave the internet" and without you having to ever see what I jot down.
Re:Rise and FALL? (Score:2, Interesting)
Wil Wheaton says he has a cold and 140 people wish him well. I write an essay on blogging or psychotropic meds and they are met with silence. That may sound like sour grapes, but the raw fact is that I'm not a celebrity. He is. Getting heard above the din of thousands of blogs is tough to do without money, connections, or fame. My site is simply lost in the confusion no matter how well written I think it is. Check out this excellent news story about the problem: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6
So here's a shamless plug. Read my blog
http://thesplinteredmind.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com] and let me know there whether I'm wasting a bit of your life by speaking or not. Heaven knows I could use the activity in the comments section.