Great email here:
I grew up in the punk rock music scene of my town, putting on all ages shows, playing in a band, etc. I feel like more and more, I see parallels between the punk movement which moved from fringe to mainstream and the blogger movement which seems to have taken more of the main stage. Let me elaborate.
Early punk music (being from England, you may have even more perspective than me on this) seemed to be largely rooted in a real social movement by an underclass who were not so much interested in creating “traditional” pop music as they were interested in speaking back at those who were controlling ideas in society. And punk rock was a relatively unrespected genre that was cast as a group that was not to be taken seriously, despite the implications the scene was having on large numbers of followers.
Similarly, bloggers seem to have started off on the same foot, initially operating as a subculture intent on delivering what was not felt to be delivered in the mainstream (primarily by the Big Media), but collectively gathering steam as loyal followers caught on to the movement. As with punk, blogging seems to have now reaching a more critical point were, like punk music, it’s crossing the line of being accepted by large groups of people, yet the forces that be continue to do everything in their power to discredit blogging as viable.
Actually, all of this up until now is more background to what I am getting at. It seems now that the bigger blogs are really gaining momentum and making a profound influence on journalism and how people are getting information, they are also simultaneously inheriting many of the same bad habits of the Big Media that they purport to be fighting against. The Dan Rather story is a good example. It seems that after contributing greatly to bringing the truth of the story to light, that bloggers would look back and reflect upon the success of the blogger movement, note its implications on Big Journalism, and then move on.
However, continually reading the self-congratulatory slaps on the back that many bloggers are giving each other in a neverending blogger love-fest only makes me think about my local news affiliate that brags for months afterwards that it was the first local network to break the mayor’s sex scandal. In other words, the constant self-validation reminds me a lot of some of things I hate about bigger media. I can only wonder if this is a gateway to lead to even worse habits that bloggers will pick up as they make even more of an influence on the mainstream media and on information gathering in general.
Yep. Let’s cut some of the hubris here, shall we?
The Dish 