Death to the social publishing revolution

I had to do some blogging for the work site, and i'm feeling a bit bitter about this whole marketing going into blogging fiasco, so here's me sticking it to the man!

Science Fiction writer William Gibson once said: 'The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet." So it is with blogging, and the tools and technology to blog.

Pundits claim that blogging is the next wave of social journalism, giving the power and voice back to the people, grass roots journalism gone tropo. Yet you need only look at the flailing number of blogs by tech journos - a field that should be ahead of the curve - compared to the amount of blogs by corporates and vendors to see that the social publishing revolution died on the vine before it got a chance to flourish. The voice of the people in the blogosphere are already being drowned out by a wave of marketing material designed to confuse, suffuse and disseminate the message.

Clogger blog observes that tech journalism was always crammed with writers begging their employers for better technology to help them do their jobs. This is my experience also. It took me years to convince one publisher that an aged Mac in the corner with dialup did not constitute a connected office to our US counterparts to download the content, which is a mindset so ridiculous that the memory of it still brings me up in a rage rash. Meanwhile he got excited about e-books (remember those?) because he had shares in the company, and didn't respect the fact that it would add 5 more days of production time to our magazine cycle, and generated exactly 0 amount of subscribers and a major operating expense. (Deep breath. Don't be bitter).

So it is with the blogging revolution, with only a limited number of publications encouraging their journalists to create blogs, while they are outnumbered by marketing simpletons marching into this space and flying their companies' flag. You can understand that publishers are essentially cowboys, and when there is no immediate financial gains to be had, pitching the blogging concept falls on deaf ears.

The impact of this is that social journalism - as bloggers like to call this whole revolution - undermines and erodes the traditional voice of educated authority and creates a dialogue that can quickly descend into a cacophony of noise. What's really scary is that the idea this blogging frenzy will result in a new thought leader/dictator model no different to the hegemony enjoyed by the Western media - the Murdoch empire - we had in the first place.  

In traditional world of journalism, before you can discuss a topic, you have to be credentialed. Only a reporter can write a story. The process consists of the principle: first filter, then publish. Now this process is instant, unfiltered, and more widely distributed.

Blogs are becoming increasingly powerful way of harnessing, monitoring and even shaping public opinion. What bloggers (in some cases, glorified marketers) have done by shovelling ideas into their blogs and linking to others is create an ideas network. As a blogger they have created a mechanism for thousands of like-minded people to listen to their opinions.

What's more journalism is becoming more reactive while blogs are proactive. To paraphrase Guy Kawaski puts it: Buzz begets ink, and increasingly, blogs beget buzz.

Of course, marketers are quick to put the boot into the blogosphere. This comment by Steve Rubel seems to sum up the marketeers blind fear of the threat of blogs to brand: "A great brand can take months, if not years, and millions of dollars to build. It should be the thing you hold most precious. It can be destroyed in hours by a blogger upset with your company."

The upshot of all these marketing blogs is that I now more regularly read the thoughts of a stooge or salesman more than I read an article written by a journalist that is trained to be objective. Both groups want to help me formulate my opinions, but one group has an agenda. Yet the influence of blogs on opinion is intangible and immeasurable. That scares me!  

The Guardian is responding by blurring the distinction between blogger and journalist, within the regulated context of its new comment is free section.

As Simon Waldman, director of digital publishing at the Guardian, said in an interview on journalism.co.uk: "We should acknowledge that a new generation of under-25s is emerging with radically different expectations of media. To put a commercial spin on this, we can't just think of them as our future readers and users, but as the brand managers and media buyers of the future as well. We ignore them - and their expectations of us - at our peril."

If you think that was a rant, check out: Jeremy Zawodny