Roy McGregor, in a typically gentle and gentlemanly fashion, has waded into the MSM vs. New Media fracas, here.
Personally, I don’t think he has anything to worry about. The so-called New Media will never supplant the old farts. They write better than we do. They are less predictable than we are. And, most of all, they generate original content – we merely comment on it. Very different. (But if the MSM continues to ape my species, instead of sticking to what it does best, the MSM is done like dinner.)
Why, then, do we keep seeing nervous, self-doubting articles like Roy’s? Ten reasons:
1. Bloggers are writing for a growing audience; journalists are writing for a shrinking audience.
2. Bloggers can’t be let go. Journalists live in continual fear of being let go.
3. Bloggers don’t have anyone telling them what to do. Journalists do, all the time.
4. Journalists used to believe they could write stories that could change things. Now they know they don’t change things much at all – and that bloggers have the ability to change things, too.
5. Bloggers seem to be having more fun.
6. Bloggers don’t have a beat. They can write about whatever they want, whenever they want.
7. Bloggers get to do what most news reporters would prefer to be doing, which is analyzing the news, and not just reporting it.
8. Bloggers don’t have many rules. Journalists have to put up with tons of rules.
9. Bloggers can post stuff that is written up, or filmed, or heard, or any of the above. Journalists don’t have as many options. They have to choose.
10. Internet is the future. Newsprint is the past.
And that’s why the MSM hates the New Media. You’re welcome.
I especially like Point 2; as someone who has and does work in traditional media I sincerely figure that everyday is my last day. And I am not the only one. Traditional media is vicious. To quote the great Hunter S. Thompson from page 43 of his book Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s: "The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason."
Then there is a negative side.
WFDS
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