Comments on: Blogs in the MSM: Rating the roundups http://www.ojr.org/060124gordon/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=060124gordon Focusing on the future of digital journalism Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:43:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Lys Anzia http://www.ojr.org/060124gordon/#comment-451 Lys Anzia Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:52:13 +0000 http://www.ojr.org/?p=983#comment-451 Blogs are coming in so many colors and sizes these days it’s almost too much for the average reader.
I guess this goes back to the launching of any kind of new media. Radio in its hey-day had an over abundance of shows and off-shoots of shows ad infinitum. TV today, too, is a gluttonous ugly mix of too many bad images to sift through in order for us all to finally arrive at the good ones.
I’m hoping, with all this frenzy, the good guys (& gals) out there in the blogging world do manage to come out strongly on top.
Hope too that the newsprint world keeps their eye on this media and that they stay nervous.
Pesonally I don’t feel that someone needs to be famous for me to read their blog. They do need to speak well though and to think well and to get my attention in less than 30 seconds.

]]> By: Richard Silverstein http://www.ojr.org/060124gordon/#comment-450 Richard Silverstein Wed, 25 Jan 2006 00:59:03 +0000 http://www.ojr.org/?p=983#comment-450 Much ado about very little I’m afraid.

This article illustrates that odd objection of most MSM to blogs: “there’s no standard of judgment to tell you which blogs are worthwhile & which are garbage. Without such a standard blogs are essentially useless.”

There’s only one way to find out which blogs are good & which bad: READ THEM. You can’t get around the fact that you actually have to do work to figure this out. I have a feeling that some journalists would prefer to have such judgments spoonfed to them. No one will hand you magic standards allowing you to know immediately which blogs are good and which not.

In my experience in the blog world, there are very few centrist blogs. If I’m right, then the reason they are not linked to in roundups is that there are so few out there. While I do not dispute the notion that most Americans see themselves as centrist, this characterization is not objectively true. All those people who voted for George Bush basically knew what they were getting. Maybe they didn’t know HOW conservative he would be–but they knew they were voting for an ideological conservative. If Americans were truly centrist, then they would not have voted for Bush.

I have a beef with blog roundups like those offered at Slate.com or Salon.com. They mostly link to the usual suspects–the blogs that are well-known in the blog world for their political views. The roundups mostly do not stray from formula to link to unusual blogs with unconventional or innovative approaches to political issues.

I have written to many of these blog roundups asking that they consider linking just once to my political blog. None ever has (that I know of). I don’t want to make the claim that I offer something not available anywhere in the blog world. But I think I provide thoughtful analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict & other issues in my blog, Tikun Olam. But my site is not high octance, high profile like a Daily Kos, despite many efforts on my part to increase my visibility.

The plain truth of the matter is that if you’re not known you can’t get known. It’s a vicious cycle.

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