Blog Creation, Readership Rise in 2004 (washingtonpost.com)
Blog Creation, Readership Rise in 2004 (washingtonpost.com)
The article I read in the post (above) this morning says that the percentage of Americans that are online who create blogs (weblogs) was up to 7% in November 2004, up from 5% in early 2004.
Blogging got more noticed during the presidential election it said.
If I read the signs right, blogging by anyone in affected regions of Indionesia, Thailand, and elsewhere that were hit by the Tsunami last week will find plenty of readers if they can attest first hand to what the damage has been, what the losses have been like from a human standpoint, or what kind of positive impact the billion dollars of aid are likely to have in Indonesia and other places that received a surprise smackdown from mother nature.
As they return home, some aid workers will probably record what they have seen, felt, and experienced in their blogs. To me, it is the personal, first hand experience of people who were "really there" to witness a thing first hand - or better yet, actually participate in it - that are the magic ingredients of blogs.
Reporters are great at communicating a story. But they can only write about what they are told, what they have read or found out. Often, they were not "there" - in fact nobody able or willing to go on record was - when a noteworthy event happened. They funnel information, and they do it well, generally.
But first-handers can communicate things in a blog that is a bit more direct. In some cases, they might be directly recounting what they would tell a reporter. Sometimes, they may leave out things that a seasoned reporter would have thought to ask them about. Other times, they may mention things that a reporter would have left out because it could be considered unimportant by him, his employer, or his trade. Or it could be something that is uninteresting to the majority of people - but intensely interesting to some.
Anyway, blogging most likely will not change the world the way the printing press, radio journalism, morning TV and 24 hour cable TV news channels, and the Internet have.
But it will probably reveal it just a little bit more than they have.
The article I read in the post (above) this morning says that the percentage of Americans that are online who create blogs (weblogs) was up to 7% in November 2004, up from 5% in early 2004.
Blogging got more noticed during the presidential election it said.
If I read the signs right, blogging by anyone in affected regions of Indionesia, Thailand, and elsewhere that were hit by the Tsunami last week will find plenty of readers if they can attest first hand to what the damage has been, what the losses have been like from a human standpoint, or what kind of positive impact the billion dollars of aid are likely to have in Indonesia and other places that received a surprise smackdown from mother nature.
As they return home, some aid workers will probably record what they have seen, felt, and experienced in their blogs. To me, it is the personal, first hand experience of people who were "really there" to witness a thing first hand - or better yet, actually participate in it - that are the magic ingredients of blogs.
Reporters are great at communicating a story. But they can only write about what they are told, what they have read or found out. Often, they were not "there" - in fact nobody able or willing to go on record was - when a noteworthy event happened. They funnel information, and they do it well, generally.
But first-handers can communicate things in a blog that is a bit more direct. In some cases, they might be directly recounting what they would tell a reporter. Sometimes, they may leave out things that a seasoned reporter would have thought to ask them about. Other times, they may mention things that a reporter would have left out because it could be considered unimportant by him, his employer, or his trade. Or it could be something that is uninteresting to the majority of people - but intensely interesting to some.
Anyway, blogging most likely will not change the world the way the printing press, radio journalism, morning TV and 24 hour cable TV news channels, and the Internet have.
But it will probably reveal it just a little bit more than they have.
posted by John Collins | 10:07 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home