popular thinking

JACK SHAFER CONFUSED ABOUT BLOGGING? Jack Shafer of Slate is a very nice man. I can say this because he awarded me first prize in a newspaper contest a couple of years ago. And yet, I must comment at least a little bit about his online column Wednesday that refers to himself as a "slow blogger." Mind you, I won't complain as much as some people (that would be you, Jay Rosen), since I wasn't at last week's conference at Harvard (still stuck in the desert) and haven't had the time to pore through the transcripts and assorted archives. But I can take issue with a few things Shafer wrote Wednesday.

To wit, Shafer begins with a 33-year flashback to talk about the power of independent video journalists to take down the networks and Hollywood, a la "Guerilla Television." That may not have happened as imagined, but surely Shafer would have to acknowledge that quite a bit of famed footage on the nightly news comes from the people. Paid professionals did not bring us all of that tsnumani tragedy caught on tape, nor did they bring us Rodney King, the Pulitzer-winning photo from the Oklahoma City bombing, and many other images we all remember far too well. The networks pay handily for this footage, which only encourages more individuals to tote their cameras. The rise of so-called "reality TV" has only heightened that sense that everyone is part of the action. So when Shafer asserts that "the guerrilla uprising Shamberg and his comrades plotted never progressed much beyond the unwatched public-access channels at the high end of the dial," well, it has progressed more than he might want to acknowledge.

Secondly, that whole business about Shafer being a "slow blogger" doesn't quite cut it. He is an online columnist for an online magazine. That's not quite Web logging. Close, but not quite. Many practicing journalists know their way around the Web but don't know how to take advantage of it. That's what stops them from understanding how blogs can help, not hurt the printed product.

Third, Shafer mentions a 1993 prediction by Michael Crichton that "artificial-intelligence agents, skimming information and the news from news databases and composing front pages or broadcasts tailored to the interests and needs of individuals" would replace mainstream media within a decade. While the mainstream media has not been replaced, I do seem to recall more and more people checking out a site called Google News. Many mainstream media sites want to figure out how to deliver custom-made Web news to their customers, too. You'd think that would be worth a mention.

Anyhow, Shafer is right about one important thing. Blogs do have great potential, and we can only hope that The Media hasn't already figured out how to use it for evil rather than good.