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Bloggers vs Big Media is not the real debate

Started by pauljacobson · 9 months ago

The idea that bloggers or citizen journalists are going to be the end of Big Media has been floating around since blogging started to to gain a little popularity. Bloggers have been predicting Big Media’s End of Days and Big Media people have been pointing to less than exemplary writing ... Continue reading »

10 comments

  • Pratish Mistry

    7 months ago

    Good analysis Paul.. the one thing you don't really cover though is the concept of media reach. In countries like the US and UK where the penetration of internet is much higher than in South Africa the debate may be slightly more relevant. However the fact still remains that many bloggers regardless of how insightful their opinions may be, will never get noticed by the mass market because they don't have the reach of traditional media - i.e. marketing power and visibility.

    The transition from traditional media to an online blogging setup is much more feasible (e.g. Thought Leader). This is a media equivalent to bricks and mortar businesses establishing an online presence to provide an additional channel to engage their customers. I'm certain that if I were a cartoonist for Sunday Times and then started my blog it would be a lot more popular than it currently is!
    reply
  • pauljacobson

    7 months ago

    Hi Pratish

    You make a good point there. I suppose the potential for greater awareness of groups like bloggers on the Web is also a factor. We may find that in SA bloggers never really reach significant mainstream awareness mainly because the vast majority of Internet using South Africans won't be accessing the Web on a computer in the conventional sense but rather their mobile phones. The next question is whether bloggers or other online publishers can translate their offerings into a more mobile friendly option?

    What is happening is that mainstream media is also changing its model to embrace publishers like bloggers and, at the same time, are establishing rich mobile offerings too. The latest that I am aware of is The Times' mobile service at http://m.thetimes.co.za which I believe was launched recently. Couple social media and mainstream media on a mobile platform and we could well go from tens of thousands of Internet users to millions of Internet users overnight when we reclassify what we mean by "Internet users".
    reply
  • Matthew Buckland

    9 months ago

    Paul -- sorry about the belated reply...been rather stretched lately. This wasn't a "bloggers vs big media" article at all. In fact the topic is so tired that if I talk about it I find myself drifting off into a gentle snooze. In any case it would be rather schizo of me as I am both a blogger and a media guy rolled into one. Or at least I like to think so!!

    My piece was more of an ontological question about what is the nature of content, and what models best deliver quality content, with a rider in that I am saying that the media model (gatekeeping via an elite) may not even be so different from some of the big "Citizen/open media" models such as wikipedia (also gatekeeping via a registered elite).

    Some will find this boring an overly academic -- but these questions fascinate me :-)
    reply
  • mattattakk

    7 months ago

    Paul... no response....?
    reply
  • pauljacobson

    7 months ago

    Sorry Matt. I was happy to leave your response as is. I think I was gearing up for a discussion about the old blogger versus mainstream media debate. I do see the value of a form of gatekeeper in the media model (that probably wouldn't work in a blogger system) in the sense of a party that pretty much does quality control on the content that emanates from mainstream media (in contrast to blogger/social media).

    Quality content seems to be rare far too often so taking steps to protect and facilitate that content should be encouraged.
    reply
  • Matthew Buckland

    9 months ago

    Paul -- sorry about the belated reply...been rather stretched lately. This wasn't a "bloggers vs big media" article at all. In fact the topic is so tired that if I talk about it I find myself drifting off into a gentle snooze. In any case it would be rather schizo of me as I am both a blogger and a media guy rolled into one. Or at least I like to think so!!


    My piece was more of an ontological question about what is the nature of content, and what models best deliver quality content, with a rider in that I am saying that the media model (gatekeeping via an elite) may not even be so different from some of the big "Citizen/open media" models such as wikipedia (also gatekeeping via a registered elite).



    Some will find this boring an overly academic -- but these questions fascinate me :-)
    reply
  • Pratish Mistry

    7 months ago

    Good analysis Paul.. the one thing you don't really cover though is the concept of media reach. In countries like the US and UK where the penetration of internet is much higher than in South Africa the debate may be slightly more relevant. However the fact still remains that many bloggers regardless of how insightful their opinions may be, will never get noticed by the mass market because they don't have the reach of traditional media - i.e. marketing power and visibility.


    The transition from traditional media to an online blogging setup is much more feasible (e.g. Thought Leader). This is a media equivalent to bricks and mortar businesses establishing an online presence to provide an additional channel to engage their customers. I'm certain that if I were a cartoonist for Sunday Times and then started my blog it would be a lot more popular than it currently is!
    reply
  • pauljacobson

    7 months ago

    Hi Pratish


    You make a good point there. I suppose the potential for greater awareness of groups like bloggers on the Web is also a factor. We may find that in SA bloggers never really reach significant mainstream awareness mainly because the vast majority of Internet using South Africans won't be accessing the Web on a computer in the conventional sense but rather their mobile phones. The next question is whether bloggers or other online publishers can translate their offerings into a more mobile friendly option?



    What is happening is that mainstream media is also changing its model to embrace publishers like bloggers and, at the same time, are establishing rich mobile offerings too. The latest that I am aware of is The Times' mobile service at http://m.thetimes.co.za which I believe was launched recently. Couple social media and mainstream media on a mobile platform and we could well go from tens of thousands of Internet users to millions of Internet users overnight when we reclassify what we mean by "Internet users".
    reply
  • mattattakk

    7 months ago

    Paul... no response....?
    reply
  • pauljacobson

    7 months ago

    Sorry Matt. I was happy to leave your response as is. I think I was gearing up for a discussion about the old blogger versus mainstream media debate. I do see the value of a form of gatekeeper in the media model (that probably wouldn't work in a blogger system) in the sense of a party that pretty much does quality control on the content that emanates from mainstream media (in contrast to blogger/social media).


    Quality content seems to be rare far too often so taking steps to protect and facilitate that content should be encouraged.
    reply

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