The Rocky blogging story
Ok, so I lied, I’m a little too amped to go to bed right now. Is it really geeky to get all excited about being quoted in the Rocky Mountain News?
Other bloggers mentioned in the article include Walter Schlomer of Walter in Denver, Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft.com, and Danelle O’Shea of My life is a mess. I’ve met Jeralyn, and I know Walter pretty well (even slept in his guest bed after one particularly hard night), but Danelle and I run in slightly different blog circles. We have to get some of those social bloggers out to the RMBB III.
Danelle sums up what it feels like to be addicted to blogging:
“I’m completely addicted to it. (My boyfriend) Mark and I will be out and say, ‘This is blog material.’ It’s something I need to do. I feel weird if I don’t blog.”
I feel the same way. I’m constantly wishing I had a tape recorder when I see something interesting or hear something funny, ’cause as often as not I forget it before I get to a computer.
Then the article quotes a j-school professor:
So, are bloggers journalists?“It’s not pretending to be objective coverage of issues. I think everybody knows that going in. Maybe they’re columnists,” said David Slayden, associate professor of journalism and mass communications at the University of Colorado. “When we have a very large quotient of news filtered through PR agencies, what is news, anyway?
So far so good, I think. There aren’t many bloggers that I’d call journalists. Later in the piece I’m quoted saying blogs are extended opinion columns, so I think I agree with the Prof here.
“The value of blogging, for journalists, is to look at this and say, ‘Why?’ It’s very hip to say, ‘We don’t trust the mainstream media,’ especially the 18- to 24-year olds. It’s very interesting to see what they’re interested in, what’s their traction, what do people respond to, not as competition for news but an insight into the audience.”
Whoa, hold up there, now blogs are only interesting as market research? Granted, they probably are a good way for a traditional journalist to figure out tone, but they’re also a good way for a journalist to find a real but neglected story. Earlier the article pointed out that bloggers had a lot to do with the fall of Trent Lott:
Lott eventually resigned as Senate majority leader, and outlets from Time magazine to The Washington Post and CNN credited the bloggers’ role.
So I don’t think that bloggers are only image and opinion and cynical, post-adolescent hipness, they’re also incredibly efficient and dogged filters of overlooked news. Not the first time I’ve disagreed with a journalism professor.
Walter thinks that blogs are a great way to debate other intelligent people.
“A lot of my readers are thinking people. It’s an ongoing, never-ending debate and probably the most effective debating tool ever invented,” said Schlomer.
That’s definitely what Walter’s site is about, it’s much more sober and measured than TBOTCOTW.
All in all it’s a good article. Nothing ground-breaking, but it will probably seem that way to anyone not as involved in blogging as I. Really, what more can be said about blogs at this point? They’re really rather simple. But the article doesn’t make any mistakes (except that most blogs are in reverse chronological order), which was a major problem in early big media pieces.
Besides, I’m quoted in the paper! Have I said that yet?
Popularity: 2% [?]
Blogging in the RMN
As Matt of TBOTCOTW hinted at here and mentioned here and here there is an article in Rocky Mountain News about blogging today. The article mentions several Denver area bloggers. For the most part I think the RMN reporter, Mark…
Let me be the first to comment and say nice job. I like the article and its nice to see blogging mentioned in the local media.
I would’ve been to pumped to go to bed too.
I also agree with what you said about the quotes from the journalism prof. I disagree with him, as you did, that blogs aren’t competition for mainstream media and that we only provide “insight into the audience” of mainstream media. Blogging may not be journalism but its more than a bunch of people talking about the news or the news covered by the mainstream media outlets. Yes, its fascinating how armed with tools like technorati and blogdex you can get an idea of what other people are talking about but that is a side-effect or feature of how blogging works its not the root of what blogging is about.
Anyway, congrats on being mentioned in print.
Can a blog be sober when the author isn’t?
Paradoxically, yes.
I totally understand about being addicted to blogging. I’m constantly thinking “This is blog material” and I always forget to blog the things when I get home. I need a Blackberry that is blog enabled. Or, I need to set up a WAP interface to Movable Type so I can blog on the go.
Congrats on being quoted though, I wish someone would contact ME about bloggin… hehehe
Just keep blogging, it’s only a matter of time till you get your fifteen minutes. I’ve now been mentioned in a magazine and a newspaper, but I’ve got to catch Andy, he was in Reuters.
I’m trying to get my roommate to write a story on blogging. It’s kinda nice having an “in” to the journalistic community… maybe if he writes a piece in his little paper, it’ll get picked up by some of the bigger papers in the city too.
Having said that, I don’t really care about recognition that much… it’s just cool having readers that comment when I make an interesting post.
The Rocky on Blogs
The Rocky Mountain News published today a feature on local blogs and blogging. Here’s the opening: Welcome to the world of blogging:
Before I Begin…
…let me Bow to the Brilliance of Kate (whose Big fest of B words is pretty impressive). B is for…
I found you via the Rocky Mountain News story. I’m not a Coloradan, though I’d like to be. I do write a lot about the Taxpayers Bill of Rights on my blog (I’m advocating for a similar thing here in Tennessee).
My blog is
http://www.hobbsonline.blogspot.com and there’s a TABOR item at the top.
Bill
Nashville, TN