Journalists writing about weblogs

[see: Written by journalist from The Times]

This was written in May of this year. I despair at the ignorance some sections of the media display about weblogs. It promotes every blogging stereotype known. Tom Coates summarises this nicely:

I think the reason I find this whole article so amusing is because it's the ultimate archetype of all news stories about weblogs. Its every word exposes the assumptions and prejudices of journalists and - I think more widely - the British.

1. So you've got the censorious attitude to people expressing themselves in public (self-expression isn't really proper)
   
2. Then you've got the whole amateur-versus-professional argument that neurotically restates only proper journalists are worth reading.
   
3. These journalists, who - we are reminded by the rest of the article - really assume that (i) the only reason to write is to get famous, (ii) there's no value in community or discussion or debate and (iii) normal people would sell their granny for dog meat to get famous.
   
4. And to cap it all off, the examples that they use are all the ones that reveal the bankrupcy of the news media - that a culture of millions of webloggers can only really be understood by the tabloidish stories that make it across into the 'proper' media. The whole thing is gloriously cock-eyed.

[tags: media]