The mainstream media are running scared. The proliferation of Blogs and the personalisation of communication is presenting some very real challenges to journalists.
To present the alternative view of blogging might I suggest The Blog Mob - Written by fools to be read by imbeciles presented by the authorative Wall Street Journal . Mr. Rago makes some good points and takes a swipe at the immediacy of blogging and responses to items by the readership.
To quote: "The blogs are not as significant as their self-endeared curators would like to think. Journalism requires journalists, who are at least fitfully confronting the digital age. The bloggers, for their part, produce minimal reportage. Instead, they ride along with the MSM like remora fish on the bellies of sharks, picking at the scraps".
Well Mr Rago hasn't put me off writing and I make no apologies for the lack of investigative journalism in this blog. A Blog to me is stream of consciousness albeit it a somewhat muddy stream at times!
Blogging is also about freedom to acquire and disseminate knowledge and opinion. I'm a Child of the Sixties and don't want my media "sliced & diced" by professional commentators all of the time. Like any good diet there should be balance.
The media figures and commentators I most admire - Clive James, Dave Barry (and those of similar ilk) - are first and foremost, fluent communicators. They are keen observers of the human condition and write with wit and wisdom.
Here in Singapore blogging has reached a frenzied crescendo. Everyone either has a blog or is regularly reading one. There is even Blog Tv on Channel News Asia, which to my eyes is one of the most banal television programmes I have ever encountered, but then again the show is not aimed at me. Programmes entitled "Does Your Momma Know You Blog?" are hardly in the same class as Clive Jame's Talking In The Library series.
This then is the beauty of Blogs and Blogging - it's a bit like the Woolworth's Pix & Mix chocolate counter, there's something for everyone.
Enough of esoteric!
Today being the Saturday before Xmas we are off to do what most Singaporeans do best - shop. (see picture below of the Xmas Shopping Melee) Not for Xmas presents in our case but for more mundane items for our new apartment.
To present the alternative view of blogging might I suggest The Blog Mob - Written by fools to be read by imbeciles presented by the authorative Wall Street Journal . Mr. Rago makes some good points and takes a swipe at the immediacy of blogging and responses to items by the readership.
To quote: "The blogs are not as significant as their self-endeared curators would like to think. Journalism requires journalists, who are at least fitfully confronting the digital age. The bloggers, for their part, produce minimal reportage. Instead, they ride along with the MSM like remora fish on the bellies of sharks, picking at the scraps".
Well Mr Rago hasn't put me off writing and I make no apologies for the lack of investigative journalism in this blog. A Blog to me is stream of consciousness albeit it a somewhat muddy stream at times!
Blogging is also about freedom to acquire and disseminate knowledge and opinion. I'm a Child of the Sixties and don't want my media "sliced & diced" by professional commentators all of the time. Like any good diet there should be balance.
The media figures and commentators I most admire - Clive James, Dave Barry (and those of similar ilk) - are first and foremost, fluent communicators. They are keen observers of the human condition and write with wit and wisdom.
Here in Singapore blogging has reached a frenzied crescendo. Everyone either has a blog or is regularly reading one. There is even Blog Tv on Channel News Asia, which to my eyes is one of the most banal television programmes I have ever encountered, but then again the show is not aimed at me. Programmes entitled "Does Your Momma Know You Blog?" are hardly in the same class as Clive Jame's Talking In The Library series.
This then is the beauty of Blogs and Blogging - it's a bit like the Woolworth's Pix & Mix chocolate counter, there's something for everyone.
Enough of esoteric!
Today being the Saturday before Xmas we are off to do what most Singaporeans do best - shop. (see picture below of the Xmas Shopping Melee) Not for Xmas presents in our case but for more mundane items for our new apartment.
Errata: I am eating humble pie and a bird pie at that. In a previous blog entry I identified a melodius bird as a Singapore Fairy Bluebird . A colleague has since lent me a CD of Singapore bird song and the bird is question is most definitely a Purple Throated Sunbird.
Once a remora always a remora - may the Blog be with you.
Once a remora always a remora - may the Blog be with you.
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