BLOGGERS AND JOURNALISTS

I was framing a response to what Gary at Public Opinion has written and linked to about Israel-Palestine and the change in the American response, not least in published reporting from the region.

And I wrote (but did not comment):

To suppose that the MSM will change its tune on Israel-Palestine, or much else, seems extraordinarily panglossian. But then again, I am deeply ignorant about these matters because the mainstream, lying, corporate and state media is neither my first or final arbiter on these matters.

You know how it goes: the corporates attack the bloggers, the bloggers retaliate. OK then, let us get a few things straight.

Firstly, I am a writer too, admittedly of the cowshed variety, but the milk and cream if it is to put out front to be continually collected by the co-op has to answer to quality control. When I let blood or put water in my product, indirectly they let me know. The management at the co-op do have systems for quality control. The numbers of readers I might have are not a mass. They are a few, but a crowd compared to those you see surrounding me at this moment. They come out of their own interest, or not at all, which is how it should be.

Secondly, this new media takes a bit of getting used to. It represents a conceptual fundamental change. I have been writing this stuff for over four years, and during that time I have been following the headlines because that is the way the daily news and the media technology operates. Think of the telegraph, the wires services and all the technology up to this point has been about creating headline stories. Of course, there were editorial and commentary, but they were just opinions based often on faux judgments, and often the commercial and political judgments have been calculated if not explicitly owned. Then the realization hits, perhaps more in potential than in expression, that with the technology allows through linking and commenting a way of understanding events connected to scholarship, to stepping back to see the full picture, and more generally the possibility of information and knowledge.

At the very least, we are more likely to be active, rather than passive consumers, because we cowshed writers know that our unseen audience is judging us not just on our expression, but on our evidence and reason. And we are judged on our extrapolations as well.

Postscript:

The central claim is to say the least questionable, but interesting none the less. People’s natural ability varies, as it does for example playing cricket or football, but when said and done, it is the enjoyment of the game that matters. Sharing ideas is a fundamental human activity. It is the source of our progress as species – and often quite possibily our regressions.

UPDATE:

John Quiggin takes up the issue and points out the distinguishing characteristic of journalists is the license to use the phone and to get interviews. Studs Terkel is a example of a person shows what can be done. In other words interview do not have to be limited to the new cycle and can be of ordinary people.

I have a project in mind. My friend around the corner is almost 92 years old, and I believe it would be on interest to record his story, but I do not have the skills or technology to do it. I suppose I could contact the local paper to see whether they would be interested, and get some technology from the library or the university. He does from time to time tell me things that he knows about and may be of wider interest. He is a remarkably fit bloke for his age, and has just lost his wife of 67 years, which is the reason why I was directed to go to see him.

Mark and KIm

I find myself not attributing opinions that I express as my own, partly because links rather than footnotes are the method of blogs. Footnotes may appear to be too academic and formal.

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