Posner on Media Bias and Blogs
Incisive analysis by Richard Posner on bias in the media including some intelligent observations about blogs. In general he has good things to say about blogs but here he points out that some bloggers (ahem) are parasites. He concedes that there is liberal bias in MSM and explains it's sources--fear of offending readers for one.
Bad News - New York Times: "The bloggers are parasitical on the conventional media. They copy the news and opinion generated by the conventional media, often at considerable expense, without picking up any of the tab. The degree of parasitism is striking in the case of those blogs that provide their readers with links to newspaper articles. The links enable the audience to read the articles without buying the newspaper. The legitimate gripe of the conventional media is not that bloggers undermine the overall accuracy of news reporting, but that they are free riders who may in the long run undermine the ability of the conventional media to finance the very reporting on which bloggers depend."
posted by Victor Laszlo @ 8/03/2005
2 comments
2 Comments:
I think he leaves out the filtering effect of blogs. I would never read half the crap I do now without being pointed to it by a blog. So if I hit a news site and read something and view an ad because of a blog, then blogging is not so parasitical, it actually helps the newspaper by pushing and promoting its content to new audiences. Plus, I keep up with the news more because I'm a blogger, because I'm always looking for a good story to post. So I'd say the relationship between blogs and newspapers is more mutually beneficial than he says.
I agree, but would go one step more. If you think about blogs as promo tools for getting new readers to a newspaper's website, then what you are really seeing is a different type of pull marketing from the newspapers based on their bias and quality of reporting. Third party advocacy is the best source for reputation building and blogs over time, tend to point people to specific news sources based on perceived quality. In this way, newspapers benefit from a more grassroots marketing of their value. Does it sell more print? No. Does it increase readership of the newspaper? Yes. And remember, newspapers now split their readership into print circulation and web circulation, based on hits and sign-ups. Don't let anyone fool you about the quality of statistics possible via the web. There are new tools like Tealeaf that can and do record someone's total movements while on a page. Newspapers are using them now to understand surfing behaviors. That is why the designs of these pages keep changing. The old top left through bottom right reading habits of print media have shifted now that they are on the web. Blogs are just one more example of how human habits are forcing more strategic reviews of media formatting.
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