Blogging as a mainstream media. Without facts or examination?
Name one medium in today’s world which is unbiased, unprejudiced, impartial, impervious to censorship and gives a genuine meaning to the term “freedom of speech”?
Blogging it is. Newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, internet and any other media you can think of is subject to umpteen rounds of editing, slashing and finally the end product which we get, might or might not reflect the opinions of the author. Blogging on the other hand is completely free of editing and reflects the true opinions of the writer. Maybe because of this, blogs are extremely popular and so many people seem to have a blog. Take the case of the recent unrest in Pakistan, when the political parties deemed it fit to ban popular talk shows and all channels which had anything to say against them. It was then that the youngsters took to blogging to vent their angst against the government. (It is a different issue that later even blogger was banned but at least it gave them a medium to express themselves).
Blogging is one of the easiest ways to air your views and get people to read it without caring two hoots about expurgation or being politically correct or worrying if you have the facts right or not. Even when you don’t have the facts right and someone has a problem with that, you can always say that blogs are personal and if someone has a problem with what you have written they can always choose to ignore your post (which brings us to another aspect of blogging. Are “personal” blogs are really personal or is the term “personal blogs” a misnomer? That is a question we will try to answer in our future articles). Be it tech blogs, photo blogs or miscellaneous blogs, all of them give you a clear picture of what the writer is trying to say.
With television, the creativity of the director or actor is killed by constraints like time, money and the acerbic tongue of critics. Even in newspapers each and every printed line (even letters to the editor) is subjected to at least one round of editing. Magazines too are extremely choosy about the kind of articles they print, taking care not to offend people who take care of them etc.
TS Elliot put it brilliantly when he said “Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers”. It is extremely difficult for a writer to slash his/her own work or do away with something unnecessary because frankly from his/her point of view nothing seems unnecessary. It is here that blogs help a writer showcase their true creativity be it in terms of writings or photos or poetries. Blogs as mainstream media are becoming increasingly popular and ought to be encouraged as they reflect the true pulse of the nation.
Do you think blogs will replace the mainstream media? If so, how soon do you think this will happen? If not, why do you think blogging cannot replace the mainstream media. We will love to hear from you.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Absolutely. Blogging will replace mainstream media and will happen very soon. Print is almost dead and even the ppl who work with the print media say so. Most of them have migrated to online writing and have their own blogs. TV will remain since people want to look at videos, but then how much time does it take when bloggers will shoot their own videos with their mobile devices and use it on their blogs.
Bloggers have a lot of say and not all of them are examined. But as you rightly said, what the heck, they are personal blogs nevertheless. Though most of the bloggers post their own experiences, some of them use it for personal attacks. It happens everywhere though.
Blogging is big and will soon be called in the mainstream media! Anyone has doubts?
May 8th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
This article is quite interesting. But if you ask me whether it will replace mainstream media. My answer is NO. It will co-exist along with the others similar to the co-existence of Print, Radio, Television and now the Internet. Blogs, i feel are merely thoughts of one particular individual or a group who have similar lines of thinking. It lacks authenticity and accountability as opposed to the other modes of media currently. Yes it does give an individual to express his/her thoughts without any binding but there is a risk of going overboard always. So with the emergence of blogs the reader will have one more option to look at News and Views. It will be a much richer experience for the reader for sure. But the chances of Blogs replacing other mainstream media is slim.
The touch of the morning news paper while sipping coffee is still special. Listening to the radio while driving still has no parallels. Lazing around in the couch with remote on your hand browsing through the innumerable channels is divine. Blogging is definitely a force to reckon with which be soon be a part of everyday life.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
i think blogging will coexist……..thats diplomatic but blogs will need the other media to market them too. So the wave is going to be in favour of serious guys who will have their own following and lot of frivolos guys will be out of the window. but i feel that the next gen teens who are technologically more adept and fast in the internet way of life….will determine the future of blogs etc. although, i am from the old school of thought but there is a sense of user fatigue attached to all these activities.
so i feel that the importance of physical networking, interactions, opinions etc will comeback with a big force too after some years and like all things India will develop a unique model. One biggest advantage with blogs remain though is that inaccessible people / stars have a direct medium to state their mind.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:46 am
Things continue to evolve and Electronic media is no exception. Blog is just a medium which can be used from publishing cat photos to managing big media company. So, Media companies will add blogging to their toolbox while A-list Blogger will look at adding authenticity of Media companies to their portfolio.