Man, They Really Don't Get It

Journalists still think that bloggers want their jobs:Blogs Abuzz with Gossip in Caustic U.S. Campaign, By Mark Egan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. presidential campaign between George W. Bush and John Kerry has prompted a frenzy of gossip and conspiracy theories among Internet bloggers, hybrid online sites that blend news, gossip and opinion.

That's partly true. Blogs do indeed blend news, gossip and opinion. However, he left out analysis, community and, most importantly, action. In fact, the action part is so hard for them to grasp that when they do mention it, it is simply seen as a sign of partisanship: Many bloggers have been so partisan that they have even raised money for the candidate of their choice -- something that has led most media watchers to take much of what appears on the sites with more than a grain of salt. I'll write this yet again: we make no pretensions of "objectivity," and we are not trying to replace traditional media. The left-wing political blogosphere has been, for quite some time now, an independent, collaborative, freeform news and analysis project that is geared primarily toward agitation and action. We are not trying to do the same thing that Reuters, CNN and the Washington Post claim to be doing. We are not just trying to present information and let those who consume it decide for themselves. Our content is actively geared toward political organizing.

Speaking of which, here is a list of polls to stuff tonight, and here is a list of emails for people and institutions you can contact. Here is a group fact-checking project for rapid response, and here is another collective, fact-checking, rapid response project.. You should bookmark them all. Three hours and counting.

Tags: Blogosphere (all tags)

Comments

8 Comments

What happens on November 3rd?
Suppose Bush loses, and the Dems take the Senate. What do you think happens then? Here's my theory

  • Certainly, a bunch of people will go away or write less.
  • Others will stay in the campaigning mode, and start paying attention to NYC Mayor, VA Governor, NJ Governor, 2006 House and Senate races, especially to get rid of people like Rick Santorum.
  • Policy minded folks will be able to turn down the shrill and get back to policy, which will be nice :).

Any other ideas? Will the left wing 'sphere be used to push moderate GOP reps in competitive seats to vote with the Dems, as well as to keep more conservative Democrats in line?
by niq 2004-10-08 02:46PM | 0 recs
Information is a better word.
You wrote this:

That's partly true. Blogs do indeed blend news, gossip and opinion. However, he left out analysis, community and, most importantly, action. In fact, the action part is so hard for them to grasp that when they do mention it, it is simply seen as a sign of partisanship.

You are pretty close but blogs are not about news or gossip. They are about information.

Its a better word to use. Because both news and gossip are diferent kinds of information, if you take each of them with their proper grain of salt.

The media thinks bloggers want their jobs because of the use of the word news.

This could be a good frame to use. Lets see:


Blogs are about information, opinion, analysis, community and, most importantly, action.
by vitor 2004-10-08 03:22PM | 0 recs
beat me to it
yes, INFORMATION is the key here.  what i believe we are doing is waging an information war with the new media.  perhaps that's what scares/rattles the establishment media - the realise they are losing the information war to us and if the internet eventually becomes the main source of news for the american people, then where will the traditional media fit in?

we are working hard and we are going to win this information war, and the lazy corporate media are going to do one of two things:  complete their utter sellout, or adapt and start actually informing the public again.  i expect the former but hope for the latter.

by annatopia 2004-10-09 10:14AM | 0 recs
Egan can Cheney himself...
Just call me Blue Boy...I'll be the one standing in the corner holding my breath waiting for traditional media to "get it".

Actually, I think some of them do "get it" and are just extremely threatened...

Political Physics
by cgilbert01 2004-10-08 04:22PM | 0 recs
The whole political landscape has changed
It's because of the Internet. Especially the web..

It started in the early 90s, which was a very short window we should be very happy we had..

Because this flowering would not have happened under Republican administration.

Look back twelve years ago. The mainstream media was the only news option available for the 90% of Americans who didn't know how to really work.. really dig for information..

Now we have the Web and anyone can publish..

Wow..

The milleiu control suddenly got a LOT harder.. and because of that the information blockade is crumbling...fast..

by ultraworld 2004-10-08 05:59PM | 0 recs
Absolutely
About two years ago, in despair about what was happening to the United States and in Iraq, I keyed "liberal" into Google and so found "Liberal Oasis".  A whole world of liberal, progressive Americans was revealed.
I don't read blogs for objectivity -- I can get that, to some extent, in any newspaper.  What I was desperate to find was analysis, to give me hope that liberalism had not perished in the United States.  And thank god, it is alive and well. I do read blogs for news, too, because bloggers like Atrios and Kos and Antiwar.com highlight the best/worst news stories and opinion pieces.  And you are right, it is the sense of community that is crucial -- wanting to join that community in my own little way, I started my own blog last March, just like thousands of others have done.  It's great, isn't it.
by CathiefromCanada 2004-10-08 11:12PM | 0 recs
The upside of all this...
You say the mainstream media don't "get" blogs, and they see us as trying to compete with them -- this can only be good news in the long run.  

If we can sustain even close to the readership year-round that we've gained during this election, they'll really start to take note of the "competition", and react accordingly.  

Who among us wouldn't want to see, for example, a 24-hour liberal cable news channel?  Let 'em see us as threats, even though we're not, and they might change their game a bit.

by osterizer 2004-10-09 07:45AM | 0 recs
by ccctv 2005-03-30 05:00AM | 0 recs

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