JOHN Hartigan, chairman and chief executive of News Limited, today addressed the National Press Club on the future of journalism.
Besides giving a pat on the back to News Ltd's own opinion website The Punch, (which he stated as being something completely new - but which is basically a blog) he tore bloggers apart;
I'm not saying that all blogging is intellectual or well researched or even readable, but he interestingly chose to single out one particular site (which I assume is Crikey) with the following attack;
In my opinion, the greatest potential in citizen media is its ability to hold the mainstream media accountable. Where the media has traditionally been the 'voice of the people' (whether we like it or not) the growth in citizen media has shown the institutions of the world that we can speak for ourselves - thank you very much.
The majority of citizen media might not be worth any attention - but how much mainstream media is worthwhile? Sifting through the "Man Gets Penis Stuck in Vacuum Cleaner" and "Why Men want to Marry Women with Large Breasts" articles is a task I no longer have to undertake thanks to personalised news pages and twitter feeds.
Citizen media is mostly crap - but so are long speeches by people wanting to flog their wares and give hope to their distressed minions.
- But what would I know? I'm just a blogger.
Besides giving a pat on the back to News Ltd's own opinion website The Punch, (which he stated as being something completely new - but which is basically a blog) he tore bloggers apart;
(on Blogging) "We pretty much get what we’ve paid for - something of such limited intellectual value as to be barely discernible from massive ignorance".
I'm not saying that all blogging is intellectual or well researched or even readable, but he interestingly chose to single out one particular site (which I assume is Crikey) with the following attack;
"As Robert Thomsen of The Wall Street Journal says: 'The blogs and comment sites are basically editorial echo chambers rather than centres of creation. And their cynicism about so-called traditional media is only matched by their opportunism in exploiting it.'
One of the best known comment sites in Australia matches this identikit.
It started as a moralising soapbox; boasting about its lack of standards. Positioned as an underdog, it lectures mainstream media every day."
In my opinion, the greatest potential in citizen media is its ability to hold the mainstream media accountable. Where the media has traditionally been the 'voice of the people' (whether we like it or not) the growth in citizen media has shown the institutions of the world that we can speak for ourselves - thank you very much.
The majority of citizen media might not be worth any attention - but how much mainstream media is worthwhile? Sifting through the "Man Gets Penis Stuck in Vacuum Cleaner" and "Why Men want to Marry Women with Large Breasts" articles is a task I no longer have to undertake thanks to personalised news pages and twitter feeds.
Citizen media is mostly crap - but so are long speeches by people wanting to flog their wares and give hope to their distressed minions.
- But what would I know? I'm just a blogger.
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