The debates stoked at last week’s session on Blogging, Journalism and Credibility: Battleground and Common Ground continue to flame up in some cases, or better, spark intelligent debate. Marc Orchant sent me an insightful response in the latter category by Sterling Newberry, The Color of Slate, to a thoughtful article by Jack Shafer of Slate, Blog Overkill: the danger of hyping a good thing into the ground, commenting on the session. I posted my own notes on this Cambridge event last week.
Shafer starts with the old point about new media not replacing old ones. The new media open new channels that parallel old media. The old media publishers adapt and absorb aspects of the new media. Television first offers visualizations of radio before it finds its own channel potential and offers things that are more uniquely television. While radio is replaced by television as the focus of the family living room, it survives as the mobile media and the background media. He is not the first or last to say this.
Shafer goes on to say that bloggers, like the early proponents of portable video cameras, are over hyping its potential to put traditional news media out of business. He adds that journalists are already very web oriented. He adds, “The danger of fetishizing a new technology (the Porta-Pak) or a new media wrinkle (the blog) is obvious: In the rush to define the new new thing and celebrate its wonders, the human tendency to oversell kicks in.”
Sterling Newberry provides some intelligent counterpoints to Shafer. However, I think the issue is not simply “oversell” but also “overlook.” If blogs are primarily thought of as a new way to do journalism that replaces the old one, this debate, while important, is narrowing the possibilities of blogs. First, I agree with Jack Shafer that in the end the old media will change and adapt. I also agree that a clear and useful role for bloggers in journalism will be defined. In the end, it is quality of reporting that will win, regardless of whether it is by bloggers or journalists.
But I also think that this debate has the potential to narrow the focus on what blogs can do. Just as television eventually did more than broadcast radio shows, the nature of blogs has the ability to impact many things. Many people in the business world that I talk to have this narrow vision of blogs as an alternative journalism media or a new geek toy, at best, or at worst, a vehicle for rants or even lesser uses (see this example of bad press for blogs provided by Jessica Baumgart). They do not even conceive of it as a possible business tool.
This is unfortunate as there are many uses for blogs beyond journalism as many business bloggers have discovered. When I point out some of these new uses to those who think of blogs as Wonkette, or Engadget or a platform for those with too much time, many of the disbelievers become enlightened and say this makes sense. Many are moved to start reading blogs in their market and some are moved to start a business blog.
I have been talking with a lot of business bloggers who are discovering many creative new uses for blogs and have derived real value. Blogs are more than journalism and more than simply a new tech toy. While both of these uses have real value, there is a significant third use, helping businesses and non-profit organizations achieve their goals. I think this diverse group of business and organizational users will make a significant contribution to the blogosphere and help expand our understanding of what blogs can bring.
More will be posted on what I found in these conversations later this week but here is one of the findings. Many business bloggers are not seeing their blog as a replacement for their web site or other virtual communication channels. It is not blog versus web site. Instead, they see blogs as a complement to their web site. It provides an informal conversation channel that did not exist before. Blogs actually drive more traffic to their web site rather than diminish it. This was clear in a variety of industries from an indepdendent weight loss coach in upstate New York, Thinking Thin, to a global e-commerce consulting firm in the UK, e-consultancy, both of which have paid subscription web sites. More on Wednesday.
Indeed, is there more to blogs???
When Mark Jen started working for Google Inc. earlier this month, one of the first things he did was create a Weblog where he discussed, among other things, his impressions of a Google sales meeting http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=59100462&tid=5979
People are starting Weblogs in growing numbers, but the owner of the content isn't always clear
http://www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-45-20050131WhoOwnsYourBlogContent.html
Cheers
Posted by: Jozef Imrich | February 01, 2005 at 04:16 AM