Trying to catch the next wave of online hipness, many Masters of Printing Mechanisms have ordered their staffs to populate their Web sites with blogs. These are often ham-handed, inane and inelegant efforts that are as laborious to read as we assume they are to compose.
In documenting this phenomenon for the book, I came across this great piece from Gawker.Com:
Newspapers Now Stuffed Full of Blogs But No Clue Where to Put Them
As I suggested in Blog No. 200 last August when discussing the blog's role with Jeff Westhoff: "Actually, Jeff, giving a staff film reviewer his own space in the newspaper and an emerging role on the Internet with a blog that is simulcast and co-branded on MySpace.Com, FaceBook.Com and even Blogger.Com would seem to give a newspaper an advantage, especially if it truly sought those who intersect with those varied demographics. It would lay the groundwork for creating a true Internet community."
Hence, the chapter I am working on right now: "The Internet Community: While I Wouldn't Want to Join One That Would Have Me as a Member, Unfortunately That is Not My Choice."
More later,
Mark
2 comments:
Blogging "by assignment" just doesn't work. Our local newspaper has a group of blogs that are as dry as wheat toast. They insist on attempting to engage the reader....."what do you think?", etc. Everybody mostly ignores them.
And, among the 10 or so blogs at least 7 are sports blogs.
In the end they just appear desparate, and desparately trying to be hip and relevant.
Dry as wheat toast, eh? Great one!
I think another element lost by MPM's in recent years is the notion of "passion." If you are going to attract an audience in either paper or electronic platforms, your work must exude passion. That passion must be matched by some level of skill.
So, people who can write but who get assigned the "task" of a blog are no more compelling in the end than some wanna-be writer with a passion for a specific subject matter but who is as skilled with words as, say, a toaster (just to complete the analogy).
Mark
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