Blogs are not the future for the Middle East media
Posted on 24 April 2008 with no comments from readersAt the Arab Media Forum this week a great future for blogs as a source of news and comment was widely predicted, if only to avoid the restrictions of censorship, government ownership and Internet site bans.
Having just launched this blog it was good to know that there will be some company. But are blogs really an alternative to the traditional media of television, radio, newspapers, magazines and websites?
Blog vision
I think they should be treated very differently. The disciplines imposed by a publishing house are considerable, and generally far from negative on content. You have accountability, if not to wider morality then at least the owners of the publication who could face legal prosecution for false information.
You also have a measure of professionalism, if only because somebody is actually paying for the production of the content and will be unhappy if rubbish is produced. Media organizations all have reputations to protect and grow, if only for commercial benefit.
Blogging is not an alternative to the established media and needs to be treated with a measure of skepticism. Who is the blogger? What qualifications do they have to blog? Who is checking their facts?
Indeed, the one thing I have against blogs in general is that most of them are mindless drivel – unsubstantiated waffle by people who have nothing better to do than vent their frustrations on a computer. You even have professional bloggers, journalists who write blogs for important people on a paid basis!
Which brings us to an important point: why undertake a constant activity like blogging unless you are paid for it? Why would you seek to develop a new media free of charge, and provide free content for the blog software providers who have presumably found a way to make money out of your effort?
Blog rationale
There are good reasons. You could have a good cause or controversial opinion to promote. You could quite legitimately be promoting yourself. You could be aiming to turn your blog into a commercial website in the future.
But without an objective a blog is no more than what used to be known as a ‘commonplace book’ in which to record your thoughts of the moment. And at that level it is hard to see blogs revolutionizing the media, although at the fringes there could be a contribution to freedom of speech.
However, if you want to set up a blog it is amazingly easy. Just do a Google search for ‘how to set up a blog’ and follow the guidance notes. This blog took around ten minutes to establish, and writing the first post took longer!
no Comments posted by readers:
Good point. On the New York Times, the columns are edited; the blogs are not. NYT columns are very tightly written and seldom have any typos. NYT blogs tend to be wordy and error prone. And all these NYT bloggers had to be famous writers in order to get a NYT blog.
Of those who want to write, fewer than 0.3% will ever get published (other than POD published after paying at least $299). These frustrated writers will try blogging about what happened to them, mostly about the frustrations of their daily life, an opportunity formerly afforded to an elite few like Dave Barry.
A tiny handful of blogs (whose authors will eventually end up in the 0.3%) somehow take off and get hundreds of thousands of readers (the first such was a blog about a young woman of negotiable virtue whose clients were all powerful US politicians). But most blogs will, like the PODs, never be read except by the author.
But the blog authors will have saved themselves at least $299.