Did anyone in the last panel mention that one of the challenges facing “big media” is the disintermediation of information and authority? First of all, experts are not restricted to major media sources. Not only can Kos become a political authority, but he can do it at a far lesser margin–and probably be content with […]

Per Kos. Blogging is about communities of people who get to determine what they talk about, how, where. Open The Network, Don’t try to Control It. Reputation. Sandy Close: Gossip? Not everything on paper is a newspaper, and not everything on a blog is gossip? The discussion is flying. Howard Rheingold: blogs have capital, but […]

There’s a fierce debate raging about blogs vs. media businesses and it seems like the wrong conversation. Bloggers can often afford not to make money, or to make a far lesser margin(remember that home office thing?) And yet, fron a consumer perspective, while readers highly value the credibility of news organizations, they also want instant […]

Good discussion beginning here–with slow slowness on the part of blogs.com which we are addressing. Keep posting! We’ll be discussing the blog comments and posts as we move toward the second half of this session.

Howard Reingold points out that discussion is part of news consumption – particularly around major events. Some thoughts: Major events are no longer dominated by TV on the day and print the day after. The extent to which media multi-tasking takes place is underestimated by the media industries. blogs and other online sources are already […]

Echoed by Horwitz (Earning the right to filter your news), Rheingold (certain amount of trust capital) and Klein (the urge to controll the dialogue): Trust is build over a long time – and lost in no time. Hence the urge to control the dialogue, a very sound branding decision for a newspaper brand. Filter we […]

A quick riff on Esther’s point about journalistic ethics: The problems of the world are too complex to be solved by ideologues and oversimplifications. The problem, of course, is that big media is perfectly suited – and actively organizing – for “the big story,” which becoming the simple story. At the same time, standards for […]

Wilkinson mentioned “controlling the dialogue”. Right there, he taps into the most consequential split between blogs and traditional media. For the politician, blogs are absolutely uncontrollable; they are an intrinsically chaotic medium with a penchant to move towards all out conflict. The informal, almost personalized feeling of blogs creates a different reaction in the viewer […]

Bohrman: Blogging is a potential cesspool of information. Sandy Close: It’s not just bloggers–how about the ethnic media? Howard Rheingold: While we’re debating, real journalists are out there–they might be bloggers or professional journalists. What matters is finding out what’s true. Greenfield: That’s a traditional media notion. Mernit comment: Being accurate is traditional? I think […]

As George Burns once said about authenticity, “if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” Current big media thinking seems uneasy with authenticy. This is dangerous because people are becoming more sensitive to it. They are seeking a proliferation of perspectives from different sources. Soccer moms looking for things to do with their kids, […]