What Are You Trying To Say?
From today’s Town Talk editorial:
“A recent Scripps Howard survey asked people “How many days each week do you get news from a blog on the Internet?” Eighty-eight percent of respondents said they never use blogs to get news.
These Web logs — personal diaries and observations posted on easy-to-update Internet Web pages in a process called “blogging” — are, however, gaining in popularity especially among certain demographic groups, the survey found. Well-educated single people, especially those without children, who live in major urban areas or along the high-technology centers of the West Coast are the biggest bloggers and blog readers. Blogs are least popular among Northeasterners, blacks and residents of rural areas.
We think: It’s good to know that people understand the distinct difference between blogs and news Web sites. For many the best thing about a blog is that anyone can say anything. The worst thing about a blog is that anybody can say anything — and it may not have any basis in truth. Blogs are merely opinion and are rarely ever aspire to any fair and balanced reporting of the news and issues of the day.”
Here’s what I read:
- 12% of Americans receive their news from a blog. Wow!
- Blogs are most popular among highly-educated people living in tech hubs. (Go figure!)
- In between the lines: Please ignore the fact that this very newspaper launched a blog feature this very week.
- I’d like to polish this line up a little bit. “For many the best thing about a blog is that it often reports news other sources are afraid to tackle, and it allows people the opportunity to express both facts and opinions on issues they’d otherwise never talk about in a newspaper.”
How about this survey? Pew Internet and American Life Project, Phone Survey of 7,012 people:
- Thirty-nine percent of U.S. Internet users, or about 57 million Americans, read blogs; 8 percent, or about 12 million Americans, write a blog; and more than half of bloggers are under the age of 30.
- Pew found that 37 percent of bloggers cite “my life and experiences” as what they blog about, while only 11 percent cited public issues as typical topics. Sixty percent of bloggers are white, while 74 percent of the country’s Web users are, according to the data. Fifty-five percent of bloggers write under a pseudonym.
- Fifty-four percent of bloggers say that they have never published their writing or media creations anywhere else; 44 percent say they have published elsewhere.
- Women and men have statistical parity in the blogosphere, with women representing 46 percent of bloggers and men 54 percent.
- Seventy-six percent of bloggers say a reason they blog is to document their personal experiences and share them with others. Sixty-four percent of bloggers say a reason they blog is to share practical knowledge or skills with others.
- Seventy-seven percent of bloggers have shared something online that they created themselves, such as their own artwork, photos, stories, or videos. By comparison, 26 percent of Internet users as a whole have done this.
So perhaps one of the reasons only 12% of people (still a high number) receive their news on a blog is because only 11% of bloggers write about the news.
CenLamar 
Lamar, did you get the impression that the article was underhandedly trying to be totally dismissive of blogs?
Yes I did. I want to write more on this. I think it’s an interesting topic; it’s as if the Town Talk was attempting to reassert its journalistic authority by manipulating the numbers of some Scripps poll, when just this week, the Town Talk launched their own blog service THROUGHOUT their website.
Guys, if you’re going to play the game, you should at least know the rules. You can’t create a blog feature in hopes of getting more blogger interaction on your website while, at the same time, report to the public that bloggers are rarely “fair and balanced.” (Nice Fox News plug, by the way).
One more thing:
I know you can say, “Well, we should caution our readers about blogging.”
But the Town Talk is not reporting that their website now has blogging technology; they’re avoiding the use of the term “blog,” because of its negative connotation among journalists. They’re calling it “StoryChat,” a ready-made euphemism that fit within the Gannett corporate model.
(Soap box alert)
Anyway, I like my friends at the Town Talk. I don’t think these decisions are being made by journalists. They’re being made by guys with MBAs, guys focused on capturing markets, taking out the competition through acquisitions, controlling distribution points in order to eliminate the recently renewed popularity of the independent weekly format.
Let me also point out that I agree there are major problems in the blogopshere. People can manipulate its “freedoms” and hurt others without cause. You can report lies as fact. I agree. This happens all the time. Heck, I even wrote an opinion article in the Town Talk about it.
My problem is that when the Town Talk added StoryChat they sold some of their authority in the process. Which means, when they warn us about the perils of the blogopshere (refusing to admit that they have also joined the club), it looks like nothing more than a thinly veiled stab at their “competition.”
It may not have been. It could have been much more innocent. I don’t know.
What do you think Spanky?
I personally feel that the financial interest of the Town Talk steers them to be non-controversial in the community and report the facts as they are easily attained. The police blotter is a prime example. Several years ago, the police chief decided he would not make the daily blotter or call log available as it was turning to a 1/4 page affair daily. There was mild protest, but the practice continues until today, that is why I asked Michele Godard that question months ago. As a result, there is not full disclosure of all calls and arrests, therefore the inability of the public to easily make a judgement of volume of criminal activity. The point being that no one has put up a fight to make it happen again and time marches on. In the final analysis, the interest of the citizenry and the Town talk are on incongruous paths. The citizenry expects the Town Talk to be a sentinel for the public good and the Town Talk expects to sell subscriptions and adspace to make a profit. Due to the nature of what needs to be exposed in our community versus the people involved, profitability for the Town Talk will be maintained and the citizens will have an inneffective sentinel. That is my humble opinion.
According to Town Talk…..
“Blogs are merely opinion and rarely ever aspire to any fair and balanced reporting of the news and issues of the day.”
And the Town Talk along with most major news media are different from blogs? In what way?
Sure they have journalism degrees but hat doen’t make them any more fair and balanced than any of us.
“Several years ago, the police chief decided he would not make the daily blotter or call log available as it was turning to a 1/4 page affair daily. There was mild protest, but the practice continues until today…”
Very interesting, Spanky.
If this is true, it’s absolutely unbelievable to me that the TT would allow the police report to be truncated. This creates two problems: 1) It means that when certain people are arrested, it’s possible that their names will be conveniently missing from the list for publication. 2) It’s not truthful. It doesn’t paint an accurate picture of the crime problem.
Spanky, I think we should demand a real police blotter. It may make some people uncomfortable, but it’s critical for our community to have a real understanding of the crimes that are occuring.
How else are we to hold our police department accountable?
Truly, it’s unbelievable that such a practice would be allowed to continue.
If I remember correctly, it was the Councilmen of certain districts that wanted the TT to stop publishing the full police report. The Council told Ned, Ned told the Chief and it was done. The TT went along as Ned asked them to.
Interesting. So this was a decision made by certain councilmen, ostensibly to protect their constituents from the ignobility of being arrested, not by the police chief.
Not a good government decision either way.
Civil, I thought my memory served me correctly and when I asked michele on the blog about it, I know she said they had to request police reports. I am trying to find tht exchange right now.