November 4, 2005
Media Criticism Department
Pamphleteers of the Cyber Age
I'm not a real believer in blogger triumphalism: I don't believe bloggers are the new movers and shakers of the media world. It's true that some of the bloggers at the top of the ecosystem can influence the daily news cycle, but even then the story becomes big only when the mainstream media catches on.
Nevertheless, this from Eric's Grumbles Before the Grave seems about right (background: Daniel Lyons at Forbes recently published an article slamming bloggers):
Michael Malone, former Editor at Large of Forbes ASAP (aka The Boswell of Silicon Valley) has a good piece at ABC News today. He tackles where the blogosphere is, where it's going and how bad Forbes is at tech predictions. It's well worth reading, especially for this excerpt.
There is already a hilarious parody of Lyons' piece circling the blogosphere in which an 18th-century essayist complains that pervasive printing presses have led to the rise of pamphleteers, whose scurrilous antics have prevented King George III from raising taxes to finance his "benevolent aims" for the colonies.
That's pretty accurate, actually. To its eternal credit, Forbes really does want everybody to become wealthy. But until they do, the little people need to know their place.
Yes, it is pretty accurate. We bloggers are the modern pamphleteer, taking on the entrenched political interests and concentrated powers of today. And yes, Forbes and his ilk really do think that we need to know our place.
Eric has more to say about it in two earlier posts of his, Bloggers: The New Pamphleteers and then More on Bloggers and Pamphleteers.
8 Comments
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I don't think of this so much as triumphalism as understanding where we fit in political dialogue and what power we may, or may not, have. I think some of us will be able to shape things like Thomas Paine did. But, just as importantly, the background noise of 1,000 other pamphleteers in the 18th century created the conditions that allowed Thomas Paine to be heard. And that, I think, is my role. To be one of those many creating a background noise of common consensus.
My role too. I didn't think what you wrote was triumphalism at all. I thought bloggers-as-pamphleteers was a darned good analogy to how bloggers fit into the national dialog.
"even then the story becomes big ONLY WHEN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA CATCHES ON." (my emphasis)
Exactly. How many stories were beaten to death in the blogosphere before the traditional outlets deigned to air them on the 5:00 news? The stories aren't big because the blog-reading audience isn't big. But with this sort of lethargy among the major media outlets, it's only a matter of time before the general public catches on...
Hey LibMike, for today I think it's true that a story being pushed by blogs has to have MSM push to really get big. But, I also think we've seen, with Rathergate, Miers, Porkbusters, and more, a paradigm shift. The MSM realized they had to do something with these stories because they had grown out of their control. Blogging and blog reading has reached a critical mass that is self-sustaining. It's no longer a question of if, but when.
Just as not every pamphleteer wanted to be Tom Paine, not every blogger wants to be famous. And as much as we might respect the views of the few pamphleteers who were famous enough that we still remember their names today, the ones who were small, anonymous, and yet ubiquitous through numbers were probably more important to the history of liberty.
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