For way too long, it has been the mainstream media (MSM) that’s played God with the American public, telling everyone what’s news and what’s not, what to play up and what to downplay. But 2004 was the year the power started shifting, that the Little People, if you will, started to tell the gods of media what the public really wanted. — Mark Glaser —Bloggers, Citizen Media and Rather’s Fall — Little People Rise Up in 2004 (Online Journalism Review)
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I felt proud (yet somehow strangely silly, almost) each time the influence of blogging was mentioned in the news; proud because I’m a blogger (even though I highly doubt I’ll make much more of a contribution beyond my personal and academic blather), but silly because who would’ve thought that a dense population of [inter]national electronically-linked writers would make such a difference in the way we view the media today? Wow.
Despite all that, I agree that the “little guy” should do what he can to get his needs fulfilled. This need is truthful, objective, reliable news–and if it takes a blog to drag the media back to the basics, I’m okay with that. Even if bloggers might not be journalists or even professionals, for that matter. What -makes- the news is just as important and -what- makes the news.
I think that is a stretch to compare a lot of the blogs that are out there with established media corporations. Some blogs are well written by talented people I guess. Most blogs are written by people that have no journalism background and those blogs have a bit of home made feel over the content. Blogs can be good for the little man to propagate an alternative view out to the masses, that may not be appropriate or politically correct.
fyi – I edited my comment to clarify how I read the statment.
I added the quote/unquote around word “public” to note that the media people didn’t feel that they were now adapting to what the people who write blogs really wanted. They felt that they were adapting to what the public wanted, despite the source for that info being bloggers…and thus really about what bloggers wanted. Well…I could probably write an essay on the subtleties here, but I think you get my point.
And, of course, the people who write blogs were telling the gods of media what the people who write blogs really wanted.
From the conservatives I keep hearing is “americans” want something, and the “liberals” (whom evidentally are a tiny minority of americans) want the opposite.
It’s a common theme – no matter what group it is, you believe that that the “people in power” aren’t address the “common needs” if they aren’t addressing the needs of your particular group. People tend to ignore other groups, whether it’s because they don’t like the other group, don’t care about the other group, or don’t actually know what the other group wants (what do I know about what inner city parents really want?).
My point is that really, the instead of writing:
“But 2004 was the year the power started shifting, that the Little People, if you will, started to tell the gods of media what the public really wanted.”
The factual basis for that statement is:
“But 2004 was the year the power started shifting, that the people who write blogs, if you will, started to tell the gods of media what the “public” really wanted.”