Over at the Nieman Lab, Jason Kottke declares that ‘The Blog Is Dead’.
He notes that much of the sharing work that was in the past done by blogs is now handled by proprietary systems like Facebooks, Instagram and Tumblr, and that while newspapers might appear ‘blog-like’ the breaking news functions they perform are really something different.
I think Jason is ever-so-slightly pessimistic. To my mind, part of the rise of blogs happened because there were no alternative platforms, and systems like WordPress were just so damned easy to use. Now we have much more specialised ways to integrate content.
However, I think the blog is still the best format for specialists to track niche issues that cannot be covered in the same depth by the mainstream media. For example, in the free expression field, specialised law blogs like Jack of Kent, Head of Legal, Inforrm and the UK Human Rights Blog are doing essential work, and the blog format (with many linked posts tracking the evolution of a case or issue) feels just right.
As Jay Rosen keeps saying, “the sources go direct“. When the experts self-publish, they blog. So I think we’re observing a retreat of the blog, not its death. This site will be staying put in 2014, I hope.
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Thinking more about the Impress initiative, I think the main issue with the idea of a ‘Leveson compliant’ regulator is that Sir Brian’s principles might not be the most appropriate way to solve the problems which prompted his Inquiry in the first place. Continue reading
Last Monday, my former colleagues Jonathan Heawood and Lisa Appignanesi launched the Impress project. This is an attempt to devise a new press regulator that is compliant with the principles of the Leveson Report, but also tempered to resist being nobbled by either the politicians or the press. Continue reading
Sitting in a waiting room and browsing the web, three examples of poor fact checking bubble into my ‘stream’:
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Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian, just gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee, concerning the newspaper’s publication of the Edward Snowden leaks. The Guardian has a live-blog and stream of the session.
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