I figured I’d use this introductory post to write a little something on why, I feel, people find blogs so useful. Before I get into that, though, I want to write something more general about this particular form of media – Blogs. A blog, in essence, isn’t really any different from a column in the sports’ section or an editorial on the back page of of your newspaper. In fact, as far as I see, there’s nothing fundamentally bloggy about blogs that separates them from any other outlet that folks use to express themselves. That’s why I found it sort of confusing about two years about when the bitterness among members of the mainstream press toward blogs reached critical mass.
Their argument, distilled, went something like : “These bloggers don’t even work for a newspaper! Who are they to disseminate information!”
That kind of chatter has diminished with many of those reporters lodging such complaints (Stephen A. Smith and Tony Marriotti come directly to mind) have moved their own content online. Yet, I still believe there is a basic misunderstanding about what a blog is. Quietly, I think that reporters like Smith and Marriotti quietly feared that, perhaps, a varied information landscape would further push them and their work toward the margins. The Internet has given basically anyone with a computer and a form of connecting an outlet to express themselves. The results have been varied. There are brilliant Blogs and Bloggers. There are also disastrously bad Blogs and Bloggers. Seems like the same can be said for … everything else that … um … exists.
If there is something that distinguishes blogs from other types of media it’s how people have overwhelmingly chosen to use them. While newspapers write about things that happen, bloggers, often, tend to write about what’s been written about what has happened. And, from what I’ve observed, the appeteite for that kind of information is voracious.
Knowing that Selectmen voted X or that the school committee approved Y simply isn’t enough for curious people anymore. More, even having all the intricate details of what lead to such a vote laid out meticulously won’t satisfy many. Readers now want to know a little something about what goes into providing such information, and, they want an outlet to discuss and challenge the information that is presented to them as absolute.
I think that that’s just awesome.
I’m going to continue to do what I do for the Bourne and Sandwich Enterprise, which is try to cover stories that matter to locals in a responsible manner. What I hope this blog will offer is some insight into how I try to do that, and a little bit of what I think about what is going on in town. As a reporter, I’m lucky enough to have access to many of the folks who’s decisions have a direct impact on the lives of folks on the Upper Cape. And, as news lovers of all of all ages already look to web for information, some of them exclusively, I think it is my responbility to deliver some additional content to them in a form they find meaningful.
The views and opinions in the Enterprise blogs are those of the author and are not neccessarily shared by Falmouth Publishing.
