Blag Post

Blog. Blog blog blog. Say “blog” 10 times fast and it still sounds like something you say right before puking. Maybe that’s why they were named blogs. What better way to label a space where people word-vomit onto the Internet than its literal onomatopoeia?

Blog Blog, Who's there?

 But I digress, Andrew Ferguson’s perspective on blogs are clearly biased; he writes for Bloomberg News after all. Maybe that’s why he seems so ready to condescend to blogging by calling it “self-perpetuating” and “parasitic.” What Ferguson and more surprisingly Steve Jobs fail to grasp is the influence blogs have had in recent years, stretching back to when Merriam Webster declared “blog” as word of the year in 2004. They’ve had such a sway in the way news is presented that almost all of the major news corporations that Ferguson holds in such esteem have blogs of their own including, you guessed it, Bloomberg News.

In response to his claims that blogs are “self-perpetuating,” it’s impossible to not bring up CNN’s incessant newshounding, where the correspondents sound so happy that they finally have people paying attention to them other than their moms. News corporations churn out loads of garbage disguised as “breaking news” in an effort to continue their relevancy. In a sense, the 24-hour news cycle has essentially reduced news reporting to live-blogging. How’s that for irony, Mr. Ferguson?

Also, it’s interesting that blogs are getting such a bad rep. They are simply outlets for individual opinion. Maybe it’s the way people thought that Elvis’ dance moves were sexually suggestive even though he just liked to use what his momma gave him.

Shake that moneymaker, Elvis

Though forums have a tendency to descend into meaningless jumble, websites like Reddit have demonstrated how discussion on the Internet can instead fuel thoughtful discourse, punctuated with the intermittent cat picture of course. Even forms of micro-blogging like Tumblr (is that seriously how we’re classifying Tumblr?) have unmatched potential for spreading news and information quickly by simply re-blogging. Blogs have also been called out for strengthening the political divide along partisan lines. At the same time, news channels like Fox and MSNBC and even radio shows like Rush Limbaugh’s do the exact same thing by feeding audiences with opinion-confirming news.

In this day and age, is there any way we can receive objective news without descending into MEDIA MADNESS? I’d argue no. However, targeting blogs as “parasitic” instead of looking at the larger failures of the news industry obscures the bigger picture. Moving away from the 24-hour news cycle and having news return to investigative and informational journalism would be the way to create a credible media, not blaming blogs for their inherent bloginess.

References

A gif of Elvis dancing and pelvic thrusting. Digital image. Washington Post. 16 Sept. 2013 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/elvis/elvis.htm>
"Jon Stewart Slams CNN." YouTube. 24 Apr. 2013. YouTube. 17 Sept. 2013 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9uCnWpLZ4k>.

Munroe, Randall. Mispronouncing. Digital image. Xkcd. 15 Sept. 2013 <http://xkcd.com/148/>.