12.29.2005
From Think Progress comes this very interesting take on the blogosphere by Kathleen Parker. The woman read lord of the flies and feels thus amply qualified to make sure we know that everything she doesnt agree with is, like that bleak piece, destined to doom.
From the thinkprogress post:
In today’s Orlando Sentinel, right-wing columnist Kathleen Parker provides a clear headed assessment of the blogosphere:
Each time I wander into blogdom, I’m reminded of the savage children stranded on an island in William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies.” Without adult supervision, they organize themselves into rival tribes, learn to hunt and kill, and eventually become murderous barbarians in the absence of a civilizing structure.
…When a mainstream journalist stumbles, they pile on like so many savages, hoisting his or her head on a bloody stick as Golding’s children did the fly-covered head of a butchered sow.
…Incivility is their weapon and humanity their victim.
…We can’t silence them, but for civilization’s sake - and the integrity of information by which we all live or die - we can and should ignore them.
Right. Thats great to know. But completely wrong.
I am pretty sure I have read a number of occassions where the MSM played the man and not the ball in reportage. If a reporter slips up i.e. is wrong, it isnt just the bloggers who will point that out. The crude imagery of heads on sticks suggests that some editors will sack a journalist or that his reputation will be irretrievably sullied by a group of disparate diary writers. Laughable paranoia doesnt make one any less paranoid.
I know most of us are tired of endless and anal debates about our relationship with the MSM but this far more simple than that. The woman is clearly a fool if she cannot give a more nuanced view of a medium that is breeding argument dissent and conversation. Most obviously across political, social, religious and other creeds to from something more interactive than Kathleen Parkers Column.
Right bitching over and perhaps it would be best if she took her own advice and stopped looking at blogs as they are seriously harming her perspective and sanity.
RR
Categories: Blogging, Media, U.S.
I have to laugh when I read rants like these by journalists. In reality the citizen journalist/blogger has always been around. Who do journalists think ring radio shows and newsrooms with stories...other journalists!? No the public, tools like blogs and podcasts have just made it easier for the public's voice to be heard. True, the majority of blogs could hardly be called balanced but they play a valuable role.
Firstly they pick up on stories that traditional media might miss. Citizen journalists are often more passionate about the story than a journalists would be. Finally they provide us with alternative sources for specific information we are interested in. Why would I read PC Live when I can read Gizmodo instead? I get far more insightful commentaries on PR, my profession, from blogs than I would from traditional media.
The thought that bloggers are savages is laughable, they are the same savages that provide journalists with the news.
I completely agree, i have searched high and low around my place and there is not one journalists head on a spear, even in my head-on-a-spear room.
She has competely missed the point of blogging and the nature of debate taking place in and around blogs. People are far more open with their opinions and more forthright having only themselves and other posters to answer to. It leads to a more honest, at times and certainly more rapid debate.
in industry such as pr/ads/tech it offers up to the minute reaction which arms one with knowledge which may be sharper than print from debate.
Completely missed the point from her reactionary retirement home in the keyes.
RR
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