The Blog is Dead and Bloggers Agree
The personal blog is dead and this is before much of the public understood what is was used for. Most college students and especially graduate school of journalism students understand what the publishing tool offers, but many people are just now being exposed to blogging though mainstream media. It is practically a requirement that professionals in the media now have a blog.
This seems to be the reason that the blog, that once propelled unknown writers and videographers, has now become the status quo.
November’s issue of Wired provides a great summary of blogging issues that people have been talking baout over the past year or so.
“Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter,” written by Paul Boutin in Wired magazine, Nov. 2008.
I tend to agree with these sentiments. The Interactive Fundamentals blog has been great for seeing each other’s work and showcasing it to anyone interested, but it also emphasizes that it is something to be taught rather than a tool for getting attention for unknown publishers.
The attention that Twitter got during the Mumbai attacks seems to corroborate the point that Wired is making. It is interesting that it was the reporting tool and not individuals who gained attention and notoriety as citizen journalists during the attacks.
I know we have spoken a lot about this in our classes and it was brought up again today, so I figured I would blog my own two cents.
Here are a few links to what others have to say on the topic.
http://www.yongfook.com/items/view/94/the-blog-is-dead
http://2008.northernvoice.ca/session/blog-dead-long-live-bloggers
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/01/28/when-is-it-time-to-end-your-blog/