Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Hmm ...

"The focus on the popular magazine writer misses writing as a social phenomenon. Letters are our persistent selves in paperspace; ..."

I suppose.

Are you basically going down the path of: Blogging, like "writing" is a word used to mean all of journalism, chat, diary (many, few, one). Thinking of it only as journalism/many misses the aspect of chat/few or diary/one.

But note I'd say a part of this confusion comes from some A-list'ers claiming the chat/diary writers are somehow a challenge to journalism.

Very good point - many many bloggers are quite successful - and effective - for and with their nano-audiences

Seth, I do mean that asking what bloggers write about is like asking what people who use paper write about.

And I do think that the growth of blogging complements/challenges journalism. Blogging is one more force loosening modern journalism's embrace of objectivity as a goal; clearly, New Journalism came before blogging.

Heh, "We're not worthy...", well, shit, maybe again... Boston, Boston, Boston...

OK, just making sure I understood what you were saying (and I agree that "what's blogging?" == "what's writing?")

However, to play devil's advocate for a bit, the growth of amateur pundits might just very well drive professional journalists to grip tighter to "objectivity", as a means of marketing a product differentiation.

Seth, good point and I'd be shocked if that didn't happen, even as the reins are also loosened.

What the media doesn't understand
about blogging... is that it does
not fit into a 30-second radio report.
I've already taken several minutes
to mull over this Seth-David exchange and to
phrase my response. I get cranky when
I have to listen to 30-second radio
reports becuase they are as informative
as bumper stickers.