Blogging Is Just A Really Easy Way to Publish A Website
Adrants is a blog. Do you care? I didn't think so. I bet you come here because there's content you like which is all that really matters. In today's Ad Age, Simon Dumenco wrote a piece entitled A Blogger is Just A Writer With A Cooler Name in which he breaks down the facade that blogging is something other than what it is: just a really easy way to publish a website. We read Dumenco's piece with appreciative glee that someone finally agreed with our position on the topic.
While lots of bloggers (writers as Dumenco defines) seem to get a kick out of sticking it to the man or mainstream media as "the man" is currently defined, all bloggers do when blogging is efficiently publish content and offer commentary on news or another person's opinion and the framework through which they publish that opinion. For some reason, the blog publishing platform has been equated to snarky opinion making which, to some degree, is fair as most blogs don't have editors are are written purposefully to ruffle feathers. But plenty of feathers are ruffled through mainstream media as well.
There is a perception that blog equals snark and that's why mainstream media steers clear of the platform for its main publishing needs. That's stupid. Again, it's just a really easy way to publish a website. Because it's easy to publish, for sure, there will be a lot more published voices (mostly irrelevant)but it doesn't mean Ad Age has to suddenly become Adrants or that The New York Post has to become Gawker. The blog publishing platform does not dictate the tone. The publisher does.
Dumenco also calls into question the vast array of widgets, segregated search engines and research tools that seek to separate blogs from the rest of the online world. From the average Joe's perspective, it's pointless to compartmentalize blogs when average Joe doesn't know the difference between a blog and a regular website. He shouldn't have to make that distinction either. Search should be search. A person shouldn't be required to differentiate between whether the content they are searching for is on a blog or on a website.
All this developing technology surrounding the blog platform is a very good thing. Some very inventive and helpful tools have been created but there's no reason they should be limited to blogs or that they should be used to somehow classify blogs as better or worse than a "regular" website. There's also no reason a "regular" website should whole heartedly embrace weblog technology to publish its content in the exact same tone and style it always has - just a lot cheaper and a lot more efficiently.
It'll all be moot in a few years anyway as Dumenco says publishers currently locked into archaic, dot-com era, expensive, legacy publishing software will convert their entire operation to the blog/rss/podcast/vidcast/conversational platform then we'll all be bloggers. Or just writers as Dumenco says we are and always have been.
Comments
Sorry, a blogger is NOT just a writer with a cool name. Blogger looks too much like booger, which is NOT cool.
Blog = column space filled by an animal, vegetable or mineral and without a deadline.
No, you're not alone -- and it's refreshing for me to find other people have been having the same..."gripe". I've been writing the same thing in various forms for about a year now. I warn about blogging becoming a sort of fast-food container at my somewhat neglected Guerrilla Journalism website (
http://www.davidpinero.com/gj/archived.cfm?ID=20). But even in recent posts I've still struggled to understand how simple rapid web publishing ever took on such a separated distinction. It has been good though because it has brought more people to mainstream publishing.
Dave
The simplicity of the blog layout has allowed people to make the web realize its purpose more and more - the sharing of information. Whether that info is shite isn’t really the point. The sharing of it is.
The laws of supply and demand will eventually take over. If no one reads the content on all the blogs, then all they become are online personal diaries, nothing more. Why would an old-school columinst feel threatened by that?
If they want to survive, just write gooder.
"I've still struggled to understand how simple rapid web publishing ever took on such a separated distinction."
The term "Blog" is nothing more than a product name. It was/is a device used by software developers/marketers to promote out-of-the-box DIY web publishing tools. Before blogging, the thought of creating and maintaining a web presence seemed like a daunting task for average people, regardless of how easy to use a CMS system was. By slapping on a fresh name and promoting the false idea that this name was for a new and unique product, people were able to overcome their fears/doubts and jump online. Unfortunately, this has led to a situation in which people mistakenly identify blogs as unique web entities and blogging as a unique network of web entities. I don't mind blogs but find the term fucking annoying. "Podcasting" can suck my dick too. I was droping RSS with enclosures back in the day. Fuck bloggers and fuck Steve Jobs.
The problem with blogging seems to be global. In Antwerp, a year ago some independent journalists started with a local newsagency, published in a blog (www.antwerpenapart.be). We did expect some negative commentary.
We got it. But strange enough, it wasn't the old rabbits from the mainstream media who had some negative thoughts. They seemed to like it. It was some fanatic part of the Antwerp blogosphere that didn't approve our move.
For some of these bloggers, the medium is sacred. They own it and one have to act and write as they have dictated. Wasn't blogging meant to allow the citizen - every citizen - to publish his story the way he wants?
Indeed, blogging is just a technology that makes publishing simple. But some are convinced they own this technology. So, maybe I'm more fond of the old rabbits from the mainstream media?
I agree as well. A blogger is nothing more than a person that uses blogging technology to quickly publish. Not a sacred member of against-the grain media. Not a member of a society of persons dedicated to get the truth out. Not neccessarily an expert on anything. Just a person, that has chosen to use the blog platform to publish. And now, thanks to Google, more often than not, just a person that uses blog technology as a quick means to distribute worthless jibber-jabber in order to make a buck or two on the contextually based advertising. David is right, and to take it one step further, blogging "has" become a fast food joint. The problem is that all you get at fast food joints is lots of fat and very little sustenance.
I agree as well. A blogger is nothing more than a person that uses blogging technology to quickly publish. Not a sacred member of against-the grain media. Not a member of a society of persons dedicated to get the truth out. Not neccessarily an expert on anything. Just a person, that has chosen to use the blog platform to publish. And now, thanks to Google, more often than not, just a person that uses blog technology as a quick means to distribute worthless jibber-jabber in order to make a buck or two on the contextually based advertising. David is right, and to take it one step further, blogging "has" become a fast food joint. The problem is that all you get at fast food joints is lots of fat and very little sustenance.