NewsHour on blogging

I was initially disappointed that the folks over at Jim Lehrer’s NewsHour had not gotten back in touch with me on the blogging segment they did. I’d gotten a phone call a couple months back from someone starting to pull together a story, but never heard back. She had apparently interviewed others as well, including JD Lasica. Having seen the segment, which aired Monday, I’m actually pretty glad I wasn’t in there.

It wasn’t bad for what it was–alerting a wider population to the existence of the phenomena–but it did lack the kind of thoroughness you would expect from the show. The “four guys in a bar” setup is fine*, but some of the more challenging questions were not asked, and some of the more typical stereotypes were reinforced.

But it also seemed there was a bit of pandering going on. Though the guests tended to be more equivocal, the presented story suggested strongly that the Lott affair was driven largely by blogs. I guess this is nice because it will make for a good intro to a paper I’m finishing up, and makes for a nice straw man to pull down. The contribution of blogs was not nearly as black and white, nor as decisive, as the short segment made it out to be.

I guess the segment may serve the function of introducing more people to blogging, it’s just too bad–if not too surprising–that it focused so heavily on the A-list and corporate bloggers, which, in my opinion, kind of misses the boat.

I did talk to another journalist today who seemed to “get it”–but it would have been nice to have seen something a bit more probing on a program with a national audience. I’ll be curious to see what some of the other bloggers, not just the politicos, think of this piece. It is pretty pro-blog, so I suspect it will be relatively well-received among the ur-bloggers, but they may not find much in it to make it worthy of commentary.

* Would have been better if they had mentioned it was part of a meetup.

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2 Comments

  1. Posted 4/30/2003 at 4:56 pm | Permalink

    This is a direct link to the segment.

  2. Neuce
    Posted 5/1/2003 at 11:46 am | Permalink

    Totally off topic, but kind of not really…It’s been a tough past few weeks… actually it’s been a weird semester too. My uncle passed away the 19th of April. He was my favorite uncle. Most any one who knows me know I’m not of normal breed :-). He actually understood me, and was the one I chilled with at family functions. I couldn’t even kneel at the casket cuz I shook pretty bad… I suck at those things. This stirred up all kind of emotions… Only two weeks earlier I decided to not forgo more education, and I am jumping ship 2400 miles to pursue a dream. I plan on moving to California. Throughout the semester through the world of blogs, I found that I wasn’t the only one face to face with personal decisions and events that tend to make life hell. Me and my significant other, of over 2 years, split up the third week of the semester. That’s fine, I just wish we woulda done it a week earlier so I could have dropped the course we signed up for together and taken a new one. It wasn’t an emotional split at the time, but the temptation of going back, and knowing it would be almost impossible not to see her every other day made life weird. Then recently I actually thought about it an it sunk through my skin. I believe I missed the emotional crutch that she symbolized. Basically in a matter of days I became “A big emotional ball of $%^&”, (take that as you will). Throw that in with finals week and I was a Counseling Services Poster boy. I’m getting a college degree. It should be the culmination of an era in my life, but I lose my job when I am no longer a student (i do have backup), but i’ll have no insurance, benefits, if anything happens to me I’m pretty much screwed. Anyways, first off, all of the Informatics blogs that I read frequently are invaluable. I read em roughly 3-5 times a week and post when I feel necesary. They have provoked more and more interest in me about blogging… I even have been to MT and want to make my own. Now the semester is over I can hopefully make that happen. The point to this is, that I turned to these blogs and through you guys used you as an outlet posting sporadically (on topic though) on A’s and Sam’s site because I’ve know them a little “better” if you even call it that…(I’m afraid to post on Kara’s – long story, ask her about the summer principles final… I swear it wasn’t intentional to this day Kara!!! She falls under the category of great that follows later :-)) I think You guys are really on to something and I think you will take it sky high. I went to the job fair a few months ago. A few companies that I found interesting I did my research on. I went to them, talked to them gave them resumes and what not. But when I brought up certain aspects of the company (like I said I did my homework), it was like talking to a freakin wall. These people are supposed to be reps of their companies and I had a better knowledge than them from reading a website. How does this relate…. The only intelligent conversation I had that day was at the Informatics table with Barb. We talked for like 15 – 20 minutes she told me about the program, we talked blogdom and metacommunication, etc.. Grad school is in my future, more than likely here at UB. Like I said earlier though, I’m moving to Cali to meet up with my musical mentor and make something of myself. Many people dream but I plan on going out and doing it. Heck free room and board, why not right? With this charming personality and these good looks, who can stop me? (Gotta try while I still got the pretty face ;-)) If it don’t go as planned I’ll be back enrolling here… I don’t think I would want to anywhere else…The dept. is great. Most of the dept., even though class size is like 40000, tried to make it as one on one as possible. Doors always open (in my case with Alex, email box), willing to talk, understanding…. you won’t take nething away from your college education if you don’t go out and get it for yourself. Use your resources. To think that at the graduate level they would be that much more available, almost makes me drool. I wanted to do this earlier but refrained because it almost felt like squattin’. I warned Alex this would be coming though, because I know the right people will see it… anyone’s time felt wasted too bad ask Alex about my first amendment stance!!! j/k….. I wish you all the best of luck… The skies the limit and let nothing stand in your way….I thank you for your blogs, and if you’re reading this line, then reading this too. Leave you with an interesting quote; think it’s some good advice to live by…

    eminem – “Success is my only mother – option failure’s not”

    Cory J. Newson

    PS If I hit it big, and you guys ever need funding let me know ;-)

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