Weblogs as online journalism — < snore >

The International Symposium of Online Journalism discusses, predictably enough, the rise of blogging and its value / meaning / effectiveness / growth / origin / yadda yadda, as journalism. There’s a paper about Wikipedia (PDF) — although why an encyclopedia makes it into the conference centre, I’ve no idea — and one about MetaFilter, Slashdot, Plastic and Kuro5hin (also PDF).

This could be gone into all year long, all century long, and still nobody would be any the wiser. I’m a trained journalist and I’m also a blogger. INewspapers and the BBC give me the facts, like a bomb going off somewhere or someone winning a race. Where the facts are murky or questionable, like a big scandal or exactly how much global warming is fucking up the planet, I turn to the internet for my factual meat because I can read information, posts by people who question that information, posts which add more, posts which conflict… well, you get the idea.

When I write an article for a newspaper, the output is the product of all that sifting through claim and counterclaim, interview and rant. When I write a blog entry or reply to someone else’s, the output is my personal preference in what to write or think about, or a supported statement of pure opinion, or an addition to discussion.

Journalists are employed to do all the research (at least in my idealistic mind) from multiple angles and present an honest and balanced digest thereof. Bloggers aren’t employed to blog and they bring only their own viewpoint and supporting sources, which instantly enter the mesh of the internet as one more piece of information for the browser to read. The difference is clear. You don’t need to have a symposium to figure this out. It’s simple!

But I guess it keeps some academics in research jobs and puts food on their table. It keeps the meme going. It’s terribly, terribly meta (and therefore very much ‘last year’). And as for weblogs as wikis: we have one word for ‘weblog’ and another word for ‘wiki’ and there’s a reason for that. *sigh*

Reading papers like these makes me feel both exasperated and on the verge of being justifiably condescending. After all, since I know the net quite well, pointing out professors’s sprawling misunderstandings is as monumentally frustrating as teaching your granny how to do something as simple as printing a file. And It’s so endearing when you see someone 20 or 30 years your senior wallowing in academic consternation and confusion about your own familiar online home. Makes you want to reach out and pet them. Aww!

“Now then, Professor, have a seat here beside Mr. Router, Mrs. Monitor and Ickle Baby Mouse. Sitting comfortably…?” Heheh.

And you know where I got this from? Slashdot!