The media is under pressure, they say. Standards are slipping, quality is dumbing down and content is suffering. The internet has democratised publishing and led to the rise of citizen journalism in which everyone can be a journalist.
Just play those words back again: everyone can be a journalist. No they can’t. If they could, publishers wouldn’t still be turning away entry-level job applicants in their droves and offering such paltry starting salaries because there’s such intense pressure to get into the profession. Bloggers are not journalists just because they blog. But they are starting to show some daft traits.
This is a quick post about something that has been niggling me for a while. Yes like many I find churnalism particularly sickly, even if it is a quick route to output for lazy PRs. But the rise of blogger egotism is an equally damning facet of how media fragmentation is causing weak spots to bubble up.
Hypocrite, I hear you cry! Here he is on a blog that is plainly all about driving web traffic poking the finger at bloggers over editorial flimsiness. Well, I ask for nothing from writing a blog other than that anyone who reads it and agrees or disagrees with the points it raises has the gumption to come out and say so.
What I am increasingly taking objection to are the bloggers getting an over-inflated opinion of themselves to the extent that they think they have a right to throw their weight around and make crass demands of the organisations that they write about. There are, of course, many bloggers who do an excellent job with informed commentary, sound analysis and pithy copy that is every bit as readable as mainstream media. Others, though, seem to have let their egos get the better of them.
Take the examples of several approaches I’ve had recently from bloggers wanting to write about certain things. The approach may be commercially sound, citing reader numbers, site traffic and the like. But the pitch can be so heavy-handed they read like a naive journalist who has just arrived at a national and been given a taste of what they perceive to be the power of the press. Yet much more brazen. The inference, rarely subtle, is that if you pay me to write something or treat me well, it will get in front of a big and valuable audience because I and what I write are so desperately important. And please see below for the cost structure.
Such bloggers need to calm down and wise up. Blogging has emerged as an important part of a changing media landscape. But if you throw your weight around to this extent, it will be a road to nowhere. Media has to be respected and trusted, not just ‘consumed’, to be influential.
Bloggers need to avoid egotism.
Journalists need to avoid churnalism.
Bloggers should avoid falling into the trap of having egos as big as journalists and journalists should avoid shoving out tatty cut and paste copy just because they have a forum for doing so.
Please do take issue with this, leave comments or post your own views. Even if they’re of the ‘oooh look what you’ve done, you’ve upset some bloggers’ variety.
