May 03
Simon Palmer is a Twit
I think he’s scared for his job. I’ve always maintained that blogs will rise above and beyond the popularity of common print media. This guy has just realised it too.
There was uproar in Britain recently when details emerged of plans by one of prime minister Gordon Brown’s advisers to smear opposition politicians using a left-wing blog.
This is true. You have just uncovered a theoretical flaw in blogging. However, I think the problem is massively overhyped by people who dislike blogs. They like to think that the only news that’s correct is the one that comes from ‘official’ sources. Did you ever stop to consider what a degree in journalism gives you?
According to DCU’s website, a Masters in Journalism will provide a rounded understanding of journalism, as well as providing students with a core set of media practice skills. Hmm, sounds awfully technical. Journalism is a skill that requires maybe 80% experience/practise, 20% of it is learning the skills.
Some of the lazier blogs simply cover, word for word, stories from that day’s newspapers
I’d read maybe 300 individual blogs per week regularly, and have come into contact with maybe 1200 of them in my time. I have yet to find one that does that. Link?
[Newspapers], which are constrained by the time it takes to get their news out in hard-copy form…
Which is exactly why these big 60 page papers should be gone by now. We are entering the century of instant gratification. If I want something like news, I expect it now, not when the papers get it out.
Imagine a train crash. Now, say if a blogger lived beside that railway, saw the train and took pictures as it happened. Now, isn’t that better than the newspaper, which will tell me the aftermath. I care little for the aftermath. I care for what happened.
One of the major advantages of a blog is that news can be issued instantly
…and that’s a bad thing? The majority of blogs are well researched and educated news sources. It’s as if Simon has seen the shadow of an ant reflected on a wall by a torch. It looks massive, but in reality is very small indeed.
which is why the better blogs are making life difficult for newspapers
Remember when I said papers should be in a decline? Yeah, I said ’should’ because they aren’t. They’re one of those recessionproof jobs, like teaching. Teachers will survive the 2009 recession, so will papers. They’ll die eventually, but not, unfortunately, because of this.
Damien Mulley asked the question of which Irish blogs were contacted for this article. I’d love to know too. Come on Simon, I mean, you’ve nothing to fear from saying, do ya?
May 3rd, 2009 at 8:12 pm
[...] Tommy has his say. [...]
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:30 pm
You really thing newspapers dying is a good thing? this might change your mind.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-how-we-can-save-newspapers-1649488.html
And if newspapers are sooo irrelevant why does everyone go hoopla when a blogger gets a photo or a mention in the paper.
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:39 pm
I dislike print media, is all
I never said newspapers were irrelevant, and everyone goes ‘hoopla’ because lots of people read newspapers!
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Is instant gratification to be desired? Yet to hear good reason why so. Complexities of current affairs aren’t properly dealt with by media now with tight deadlines etc but I dread to think of what it would be like if all media was 24-7 instant gratification. 140 character updates of public policy = (final) death-knell of political sphere.
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:53 pm
See my google post yesterday? That’s instant gratification. How could 24/7 access to media possibly be bad?
May 4th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I disagree with everything you’ve said here, but I’ll single out your train crash example. By my reckoning, a blogger is going to provide the visceral details – provide an eyewitness account of what he heard and provide gruesome pics for those who get a kick out of that kind of thing, and maybe some mindless blather about how it could have been him, or his mother was supposed to be on the train, or some emotional nonsense that gets in the way of the facts.
A journalist reporting the accident would probably do their best to (1) determine the cause of the crash (2) discuss the significance of the crash in terms of infrastructure damage, casualties, etc. (3) figure out if anybody important was on-board, that kind of thing.
You say that you “care little for the aftermath. [You] care for what happened” – an eyewitness blogger isn’t going to tell you what happened, he’s just going to be the first to show the aftermath.
I’m a blogger too, Tommy, and while I may have something to say about politics and economics in person, I keep from posting it to my blog because there are more intelligent people who have a better grasp of the situation, and contributing to the information overload with twaddle isn’t helping things at all. (Look at the swineflu hysteria on twitter as an example of the chaff that comes with this open broadcasting platform).
May 4th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Since there are better and more intelligent people than Sully out there who could write a better comment about this, why did he leave one? His own argument seems to suggest only the best person should be giving an opinion on something, whatever best means.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
eh? Sully,
1] why does the ‘print reporter’ assume the invented blogger is a *he* and you’ve obvoiusly never read my blog which although it didn’t report a train crash it did report a bus crash.
2] if the train said *cargo only – no driver* the blogger [he or she] may rightly assume no-one was on board. Other than that the 5.30pm to Cork ‘usually’ has passengers……. or one could phone and see how many tix were sold????
3]information overload…. try and find any publication that will tell you what i have about raising chickens and how to lay a patio….
not one has! in fact every other form of media has suggested that ‘growing your own’ will save you money….. it will if the set-up is paid for by someone else. And this has everything to do with politics and economics btw [in case you may suggest it doesn't]… if that is you have been reading press releases from Clare County Councils Lord Mayor…. ? [thats just an example - like the train you singled out].
and finally i find your tone quite rude.
peter
May 4th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Lads, let me start by saying ‘ouch’ – didn’t think this would be such a touchy subject.
I’ll ignore the ad-hominems and twisting of my words and try and defend my position.
Damien, you’re made a straw-man of me by representing my argument as ‘only the best person should be giving an opinion on something’. This isn’t about opinions – this is about news – this is about hard facts as soon as they happen.
Peter, I hadn’t read your blog before I read your comment. The point that I failed to convey was that a newspaper has a set formula for reporting incidents, whereas a blog has no such restriction, meaning that the personality of the author might appear in the report (hence the bizarrely specific examples I was giving).
I’m not saying that a blogger couldn’t investigate the specifics of the story, I’m just theorizing that they’d be less inclined to spend their own time and resources than a journalist who has access and a vested interest in getting the facts. It’s just postulation on my part – I’m sure there have been bloggers who have done these things, but I’d be equally sure that they’re in the minority.
When I talk about ‘information overload’, I’m talking about the way the waters can be muddied by people promulgating conspiracy theories, or making a huge stink about a president who reads off a teleprompter, elevating fringe fucknuttery to a far too visible plateau.
Where I feel that blogs excel is in the esoterica. You’ve written about laying patios and raising chickens? I think that’s fantastic! I ‘investigate’ software scams, document religious graffiti and talk about critical thinking on my blog
I think that part of the problem we have here is that the word ‘blog’ is too vague. The Huffington Post is a ‘blog’, technically, but I think of it as an online newspaper (although some of the medical advice they’ve got there is scandalous)
(Every additional word to this obese comment caused a pang of guilt, so please excuse my exhaustive reply)
Just to clarify: I love blogs. I love blogging. What I love about blogging is that the personal details interspersed make me feel like I know the person, and I can figure out if I ‘trust’ them on certain topics.
I agree that the catchall statement “I disagree with everything” seemed rude. I should have been more specific (I agree that Simon Palmer is a twit) – I was just disagreeing with the notion that blogs should replace newspapers, at least in their current form.
Can we have a civil discourse? I lament that it must be a failure of my comment, but it seems that it was me who was attacked, rather than my points.
May 4th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
I’m of the opinion that PR companies are for people who know their viewpoints can’t really stand up to criticism. Can’t defend your arguement? let a PR company do it for you. Since this “boom” of ours PR companies have been popping up like mushrooms.
May 4th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
sulley,
bulaidh bós and agree on civil discourse/ that Simon Palmer is a twat as well as a twit etc…..
i guess *any writer* – with regard to trust/ investigative nature is what makes any blog/ newspaper. There are newspapers I do purchase ie of a business nature yet I wouldnt read those of a paparazzi type. And equally blogs. In that context publish type is totally irrelevant.
My personal discourse [for eg.] is that the bandwagon hoppers like Richard Corrigan and his technicolour dreamcoat [RTE btw & a surreal methodology of 'eco' apparent farming] preaches useless/ unaffordable practices that not one newspaper will mention……
Am I sidetracking slightly…. sorry Tommy ;)
……why? IMO mainly because no article I have read this year on ‘living the good life’ has the author *really* practiced what they are preaching… i mean the 2 kids, both parents working, home at 8pm and out to dig the patch – my arse :shock: it’s a lot of copy and paste… tadaaaaaah …and here’s how you raise hens.
but yet *blogging is bad* says Simon Palmer. I guess I get confused.
Go raibh míle maith agat Tommy. Really appreciate the platform to discuss this. Well deserved of that fancy award you won in Cork for doing one of the many things you do so very well.
Peter
May 5th, 2009 at 1:03 am
Good reperutable blogs will always come to the fore due to the on going peer review. Newspapers will always have a form of peer review through issue and ad sales. There will always be crazys on both sides given that anyone can publish or sell something both online and in the street.both blogs and newspapers can come from specific points of view or political wings. Some would say the media are easier to distiginushe this pointvof view but regardless of how easy it is to tell where they are coming from, the all come from some angle. Perhaps the future of newspapers is more like a colabrative blog such as irishtimes.com, culch.I e or irishelection.com. Just like pamphleters conbined to be newspapers bloggers combine. I would presume it could be as much of convience getting types of information all in one place.
Good discussion
Eoink
May 5th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Perhaps Tommy should link to Simon Palmer’s blog:
http://www.republicpr.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1&Itemid=11
It’s good to include the source material for this interesting discussion.
May 6th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Easter is over, Jesus don’t need the cross, yours if you want it Sully.
May 6th, 2009 at 8:31 am
I see from Damien’s blog that Simon himself (or someone claiming to be him) has commented about 3 times on the post. I’d say, from that, he’s probably read this post, as there’s a link on the bottom. Simon, if you have read this post, care to address some of the issues raised?