Thursday, December 18, 2003
While waiting for an interview to come in, I scanned through this essay from 2000 on the history of Weblogs (which amounted to only a couple of years at that point, really). Check out Rebecca Blood's Weblogs: A History and Perspective.
It's an interesting look at what Weblogs are and how they've evolved. It also contrasts Weblogs with mainstream media, but the author obviously didn't think to compare blogging to gonzo journalism like that of Hunter S. Thompson, which I think would be a fair assessment. Blogging basically strips out all of the traditional media guidelines (face it -- few went to journalism school; I'm an exception) and basically tells the story from a participant's view, which is basically what Thompson and others who fall under gonzo journalism did (and still do, in Thompson's case).
However, that gonzo journalism ideal is something that has also contributed to much of the crap we see on the Web -- unedited, completely biased and poorly written. Take, for instance, Ain't It Cool News. Harry Knowles is basically a film geek who got in on the ground floor of online news and reviews. However, Knowles could seriously use a spellchecker and grammar checker. I like the little news tidbits that get up on that site, but the fanboyism that also exists there and the big "fuck you" that Knowles and his comrades seem to give to the English language makes it difficult to read.
Hmm...I've gotta come back to this topic when I have more time.
It's an interesting look at what Weblogs are and how they've evolved. It also contrasts Weblogs with mainstream media, but the author obviously didn't think to compare blogging to gonzo journalism like that of Hunter S. Thompson, which I think would be a fair assessment. Blogging basically strips out all of the traditional media guidelines (face it -- few went to journalism school; I'm an exception) and basically tells the story from a participant's view, which is basically what Thompson and others who fall under gonzo journalism did (and still do, in Thompson's case).
However, that gonzo journalism ideal is something that has also contributed to much of the crap we see on the Web -- unedited, completely biased and poorly written. Take, for instance, Ain't It Cool News. Harry Knowles is basically a film geek who got in on the ground floor of online news and reviews. However, Knowles could seriously use a spellchecker and grammar checker. I like the little news tidbits that get up on that site, but the fanboyism that also exists there and the big "fuck you" that Knowles and his comrades seem to give to the English language makes it difficult to read.
Hmm...I've gotta come back to this topic when I have more time.
// posted by Chris @ 3:19 PM 
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