What are the positive and negative associations that you and those around you have with blogging? Have attitudes changed over time?
Ah, good question, given that my day job* is getting a whole company's worth of journalists up and blogging. And, to be frank, the major problem is negative associations. Journalists' pre-conceived ideas of blogging tend to fall into two schools:
- Lonely losers blogging in their underpants in their bedrooms
- Rabid, opinionated ranting.
The reasons for those views are pretty clear to me: those are the versions of blogging that have seen the most exposure in the mainstream press, and hence have penetratrated journalists' busy minds. However, I do find it more than a little worrying that so many people who are, by nature, publishing professionals have been happy to just accept the recieved wisdom from another source, rather than exploring the issue for themselves.
As I've pointed out on more than one occasion saying "blogging is all losers ranting in their bedrooms" is a bit like picking up a copy of Horse & Pony and going "not sure I like this magazine business, it's all about teenagers and their horse obsession. It's confusing the medium with the message.
The positive side is the unbridled enthusiasm I see in some journalists' eyes when the idea of connecting directly through to their readers via the blog becomes clear to them. These are the journalists who genuinely care about providing the best information for their readers and want to interact with them. And that's just cool.
*Yes, I did have an evening job in the past, writing game stuff for White Wolf. But I no longer have the time, and they no longer seem to have the money (pay rates down, author comps cut?) to make that worthwhile part of my life.
clipped from news.bbc.co.uk
