Feel the Love

Henry Farrell writes about the tension between journalists and bloggers. I guess that some journalists feel that bloggers are stealing their advertising revenue.

The struggle between the mainstream press and bloggers is an on going theme in the blogosphere, but I don't buy it. Where ever I look, I just see a giant love fest going on between journalists and bloggers. Look at the new Times design. They have a section just for items most blogged about.

Whenever we write any commentary on a columnist, they put it on the bottom of the page. Even when we criticize them. This sends in a lot of traffic. And when they link to me, it makes my head all big and puffy, because every blogger secretly hopes to get a real job some day, and then I keep up the links to these columnists.

Bloggers are regularly quoted in the paper as experts. The Times writes an article on blogs every other week.

Bloggers regularly link to the mainstream papers. Probably link to them more often than to other bloggers.

All this back and forth linking between blogs and the media expands readership and drives buzz.

All I see is love.

Comments

[Milo]

This is just the same old story of the new being more efficient than the old and the replacement process. I don't know anyone under 30 who reads papers frequently unless they're kissing up to their bosses.

Blogs are faster, more tailorable to the reader, and more relevent to what a person wants to read about. Journalists must have seen the demise of their medium. They can either adapt or die like the dinosaur.

Very much like your blog BTW.

-Milo
wtfland.com

[RCinProv]

But the "most blogged about" list -- which I consult daily -- has no links! I want to see all those blogs on JK Galbraith. I know I can go to technorati, but that presumably finds anyone mentioning him, not specific to the NYT. I find that frustrating. So I think you've slightly overstated the linking issue; but I agree that blogs and the MSM are co-existing better over time.

[Laura]

Even if the Times doesn't link to blogs there (you can find them here), they are keeping track. Blog buzz must be important to them. Individual journalists might detest bloggers, but the industry itself loves bloggers.

[Allison]

Of course journalists love blogs. Journalists are lazy, and blogs makes life easier for them. If you are doing an article on infertility and need to find infertile women to interview, instead of spending hours on the phone, you can just Email a bunch of infertility bloggers and presto, you've got your quotes.

I'm a journalist and a blogger and a lot of people are both. They are DIFFERENT.

Blogging is a lot more fun -- no bosses, no editors, no deadlines. It's the difference between doing something as a job and doing it for fun.

Like the difference between reading a book because you are teaching a class on it and writing a scholarly article on it, or just reading it for pleasure.

(or the difference between being a call girl where you are told where, when, and with whom to have sex....and having recreational sex for your own fun and enjoyment)

[RCinProv]

Cool! Thanks for the link!

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