Blogging

Blogging has hit the mainstream.

This morning I happened to overhear the folks on Fox News' morning show talking about blogging. This highlights the geek dilemma - working with cutting edge technology and being ahead of everyone else on new concepts and software is fun.....until the average guy finds out about it and the hordes rush in. This last act changes the dynamic of the activity and renders it "mainstream" and removes the attraction for early adopters.

On another note, the fact that Greta and friends are now blogging shows the line between "typical" methods (print, magazine, radio, television) and "online" methods (webzines, news sites, blogging) is blurring. The fact that anyone can become a provider of information (and opinion) is a powerfully democratizing force of the Internet. With this power comes a reponsibility that has been codified in the "old" media but still runs free in the "new" media. We are living in a period of transition where we are moving from the old ways of getting information to new ways. Much like the transition period associated with the settling of the American West, the laws of cyberspace are still being made. It is fun to observe this process. We are truly Living in Interesting Times.

I leave you now with the journalists creed. I wonder if more "old" journalists or "new" bloggers adhere to the beliefs inscribed within?


"I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full measure of their responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is betrayal of this trust."

Walter Williams
Dean, School of Journalism
University of Missouri