The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Technology and news and transparency
: In the interest of transparency, here’s a link to the presentation I’ll give this morning at Aspen (it’s PowerPoint saved for the web, so you should be able to read the notes with the screens). If you have any comments, comment.
(By the way, I am trying to figure out how to put up the Daimler Chryster/Organic/BBDO citizens’s media presentation but it’s just such a huge file, I’m trying to figure out how to slice it up.)
oops. forgot the .mht.
try it now.
Debunking the myths of blogging
1. Faster is better. Jeff, you don’t talk about improved quality, i.e. higher signal to noise ratio. The major complaint about journalists is that they are generalists and don’t have time to research the topics they’re writing about or they’re writing about event from a second-hand perspective. How many bloggers including yourself are doing genuine research on a specific topic? Instead we see endless links in the echo chamber of the blogosphere or else links to the major media you demonize.
2. There is no hierarchy in the blogosphere–information is disseminated in an egalitarian manner. This is the Cluetrain conceit, but it simply isn’t true. The main players in the blogging world work hard to establish their preeminence among other bloggers, hence Technorati and the A-list bloggers who continually link and track back each other. It is impossible for the average person to survey all the blogs (and who’d want to), but there is a conspicuous lack of critical analysis among the Pharisees of blogging.
3. The blogosphere has the authority of other information venues. The prototypical blog is the Drudge Report which is the type of gossipy rumor mongering that we all feel guilty about reading. No matter what you think of Moore or Gibson (and I don’t think much of them but they are nonetheless influential), they showed that they could transmit their ideas among all levels of this society through the well-established medium of feature films. Blogs simply don’t have the influence. The “best” they done so far is to bring down politicians who made the egregious error of mispeaking. By snarking unrelentlessly, they’ve simply forced government officials to be more secretive. This is not progress.
4. Your idiosyncrasies are compelling. I call this cell phone-itis. Please, just as I tire of hearing people in public loudly pronounce where they are at the present time on their cell phones, I find it just as tedious to read one more post where the blogger talks about his problems or successes with traveling. “Hey, my flight was delayed, the hotel room doesn’t have wi-fi, the person sitting next to me is fat”…and the ever popular…”I’m at this tech conference and there’s no wi-fi.”
Imagine Tom Friedman or Bill Safire writing such drivel, yet this is the bloggers’ bread and butter. (And, please no stories about your anxious battle with earwax) Also, they would never stoop to the self-gratuitous name-dropping that some bloggers relish. Really, for the reader it’s more important what’s in your head than who you rub elbows with.
5. The ever-narrowing comfort zone makes you more of an expert. Bloggers chose to cover those topics with which they are comfortable. They’ll grace you with their simple solutions with which they’re duly self-impressed. If they’re quilting enthusiasts, they tell you the world is on the brink of a widespread quilting epiphany, EVERY DAMN DAY. And, they’re please as punch to find others who can accept the same orthodoxy and then link to them. “Are you listening, baba booey?”
Just like the protocol in ancient Rome, where the returning military hero had the person standing behind him in the chariot saying, “remember you’re still human,” the bloggers need similar contacts with reality,” and they’re called editors. Hubris has the remarkable ability to sustain self-denial.
Wanna know what I had for breakfast?
DH
No research by bloggers Dan? Go talk to Trent Lott.
I think bloggers know very well they are human, that is why you hear about things like travel troubles. Editors are useful for print publications when they improve a persons writing. Jeff could cite a few articles he has killed because the editor tried to make changes in content that did not improve literary style.
Humilty is a great thing, but something big media has forgotten.
Argh – it’s for IE only. And, it doesn’t work for IE for the Mac either. Any chance to convert the presentation into pdf format and then making that available?
Sorry to be a pain, I really would be most interested. Many thanks in advance.
Andreas: I don’t know how. Anybody have any tips?
TV: Name any first-person reporting that he has done besides those involving McDonalds, blogging conferences, …is there anything else?
What research has he done and in what subjects (this doesn’t include going to the movies or watching tv)? Gee, so what makes up the content of the so-called important blogs except ramblings and rumblings that bloggers cull from online sites and this mostly includes major media which is actually producing original content based on whatever level of research they perform.
Fact is, blogging can be done with little or no effort. It’s really a medium meant for adolescents with ADHD. I’d be impressed if any one of them actually read a book.
What’s in your head is more important than who you’re rubbing elbows with.
“I’d be impressed if any one of them actually read a book.”
Well, according to this post and related comments, they don’t.
My point was about bloggers in doing research in large…
Let’s see there is Glenn Fleishmann who does alot of research on Wi-Fi Networking News (http://wifinetnews.com/)
Making of a Restaurant (http://www.santheo.com/restaurant/) did a lot of research on Chicago restaurants when it was running.
Julian Sanchez (http://www.juliansanchez.com/notes.html) does alot of political research for his blog, very well read.
Your personal attacks on Jeff weren’t my point and frankly if you don’t like his site don’t read it.
Blimey Dan, who took the jam out of your doughnut then?
I don’t think anybody would argue that blogging is the be all and end all of all communication, be that marketing or otherwise. And neither will anybody deny that the signal to noise ration is as high in blogging than it is in other freely accessible publishing medium. I remember the early days of geocities when the concept of free web space was revolutionising the way people thought about internet publishing. Within months tens of thousands of web pages had sprung up of which 90% were utterly forgettable – from my own personal point of view.
But as always, there is gold in muck. I have learned much from well written blogs and I hope that people who are in a similar position to myself (I am a Creative Director) will find my own writings interesting and instructive.
Your negativity says far more about yourself than about the people you’re sneering at.
Jeff,
I can take the original PPT file and convert it to PDF on my PC if you need that. You need Acrobat Distiller to do this.
BTW, excellent material. Great reading.
rwp at mac dot com
if you want to send it. I’d be happy to do the other presentation as well for you.
rob.