Professional Blogging?
I began this week with a tongue-in-cheek oxymoron (Intelligent Television?), so why not end on a similar note by mentioning the BlogNashville conference organized under the auspices of the Media Bloggers Association. A CNN report said the two-day event, which drew more than 300 bloggers, “was heavy on teaching techniques used by journalists. . . (such as) . . .how to access and analyze government statistics.”
Attendees include political blogger Glenn (Instapundit) Reynolds, citizen journalism activist JD (Ourmedia) Lasica and tech guru Dave (Scripting News) Winer, who apparently provoked a debate on the panel at which he spoke (shocking all who know of Dave – not).
My reference to the oxymoronic overtones of “professional blogging” was not intended as a slap at the blogosphere – which would certainly be foolish given that it might offend an estimated 31.6 million bloggers. Instead I want to think about the various meanings of "professional."
But amidst that noise some blogs stand out by virtue of their very clarity, such as one I tripped over this morning, in which Elise Bauer writes: “What is a blog, anyway? It's just a website. A website that is extremely easy to update with fresh content. A website that has built in capabilities - the ability to comment for example - for interacting with its readers. A website that has a personal voice.” As far as I’m concerned that’s a perfectly “professional” explanation. (FYI, you will find beaucoup information about the weblog tools market in one of her recent posts, and it was this entry, which popped up in a search, that allowed me to find her.)
So in my mind, the difference between the professional and non-professional writer is not necessarily that one is better than the other, but that one gets paid and the other has a hobby. Both types are surely welcome in the blogosphere. This is, as we like to say, a free country.
Tom Abate MiniMediaGuy Cause if you ain’t Mass Media, you’re Mini Media
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