Why journalism still beats blogging
Dear readers,
After saying yesterday that I was going to spend today looking at the Labour blogosphere, I’m afraid that I have been forced to deviate from that plan slightly. You see, the Top 100 left-of-centre blogs has been released and will be discussed tomorrow but in the meantime I have to discuss why the Top 100 left-of-centre blogs is in fact nothing of the sort because several bloggers have ‘opted-out’ of the voting. This includes Bloggerheads, Chick Yog and Liberal Conspiracy (who presumably would have ranked fairly highly) along with a few others. So I got thinking – why would anyone opt-out of a poll of the most popular bloggers? I’ve come up with a number of possible reasons, each of which will now be dissected…
The poll’s methodology is flawed: well, duh. No email poll can ever be perfect (e.g. anonymous voting, people voting twice etc), but seeing as everyone is in the same boat this is clearly a poor reason to boycott a poll of any description. Nobody ever pretended that this poll was anything more than indicative of a blog’s popularity.
The poll is sponsored by a PR company: And?
The poll is biased because it is held on Iain Dale’s blog: another stupid reason. Iain got LabourHome and Lib Dem Voice to promote the poll and many bloggers followed suit on their own sites. Furthermore, the poll is actually run by Total Politics, who are an independent political magazine. Yes, Iain Dale is their editor but their editorial board includes the likes of Caroline Lucas, Chris Huhne, Angus MacNeil and Denis McShane – none of which I’d describe as Tory hardcore free marketeers.
The poll is biased because Iain Dale’s blog has mostly Conservative readers: nope, more rubbish. While Iain Dale does indeed have mostly Conservative readers, I think it’s fair to say that the blogosphere contains more right-leaning bloggers than anything else. For example, the Total Politics Blog Directory lists 334 Conservative blogs, which is over 100 more than any other party can boast. Seeing as LabourHome and Lib Dem Voice don’t exactly have large numbers of Conservative readers as a general rule, any bias towards the Conservatives in the Total Politics poll is simply a perfectly reasonable reflection of who reads and writes blogs. Therefore, when judging blog popularity across the whole blogosphere then a right-leaning bias is both inevitable and accurate.
Seeing as all of the above are complete nonsense, I think there is only one reason left for opting-out of the Total Politics poll: they don’t like Iain Dale. Needless to say, this makes the ridiculous reasons listed above look positively tame. Tim Ireland’s long-running obsession with Iain is well documented, Sunny ‘I spend all my time thinking of reasons to hate the Tories while hiding my own authoritarianism’ Hundal has clearly been struck down by the same anti-Iain bug while Justin McKeating also displays the same mix of jealousy and bitterness whenever Iain’s name is mentioned. Opting-out of the Total Politics poll achieves nothing, that much is clear, so – in a way reminiscent of many people’s teenage years – these bloggers have evidently decided to try and spite Iain rather than achieve anything in their own right by removing themselves from the voting.
So why raise this issue today? Well, much has been made in recent years of the encroachment of bloggers into the space previously occupied by journalists. A number of journalists were quick to slag off blogging and the feeling was often mutual on this side of the fence too. However, one thing that I think journalism still holds over bloggers (and will continue to do so for quite some time, in my opinion) is that the mainstream media plays the ball, not the man. The bile and hatred that typifies sites such as Bloggerheads cannot be found in the MSM, nor can the likes of Guido’s ‘Is Brown bonkers?’ campaign that always made me feel deeply uncomfortable. You won’t find Bruce Anderson starting a hate campaign about George Osborne, nor will you find Polly Toynbee hurling personal abuse at Nick Clegg – it just doesn’t happen, regardless of how much they vehemently disagree with politicians or indeed other journalists. The fact is that MSM journalists refuse to descend to hateful personal attacks whereas some bloggers have no problem doing so, and this professionalism is one of the biggest reasons why I believe journalism still holds the upper hand over the blogosphere.
Discuss!
Witanagemot Blogs
“Seeing as all of the above are complete nonsense, I think there is only one reason left for opting-out of the Total Politics poll: they don’t like Iain Dale.”
Spot on!
But talk about cutting your noses off to spite your face…
“The fact is that MSM journalists refuse to descend to hateful personal attacks…”
But I have to disagree with this. They are the same at heart – just people. Journalists aren’t ‘better’ than anyone else, they just have more options, or can hide it better.
But isn’t the fact that journalists manage to ‘hide’ it when bloggers don’t one of the biggest dividing lines between the two?
I’m sure many people who read newspapers would be horrified at what they read on blogs in terms of attitude, aggression, language and the personal nature of so much of what is said. Even if journalists are indeed hiding their true feelings, I still think it can sometimes make for a healthier and more constructive debate.
“I’m sure many people who read newspapers would be horrified at what they read on blogs…”
I don’t know. You talk about them as if they are two totally seperate audiences. Isn’t there quite a bit of crossover between the two?
“Even if journalists are indeed hiding their true feelings, I still think it can sometimes make for a healthier and more constructive debate.”
Ah, but when it comes to a head (no-one can hide that kind of enmity forever) doesn’t it make people wonder what else they managed to hide?
“Hmm, if he fooled me into thinking he quite liked and respected that other columnist/presenter/author, what else did he fool me about?”
I think the difference is that journalists can be carried by their newspaper brand. Bloggers have to shout louder to get attention.
Julia, sure, lots of people read blogs and newspapers, but judging by daily newspaper circulation it looks like newspapers still retain a fair chunk of loyal readers. The duplicitous nature of many journalists has been highlighted by Guido and numerous others, but it’s the basic standards that journalists adhere to when writing (e.g. no personal abuse or vindictive campaigns) that I think distinguishes them rather than the message that they are broadcasting.
Charles, journalists obviously have an advantage in terms of visibility but it’s not like they woke up one morning and discovered that they had a broadsheet column – they worked their way to the top, just like bloggers do.
However, one thing that I think journalism still holds over bloggers (and will continue to do so for quite some time, in my opinion) is that the mainstream media plays the ball, not the man.
On balance, this is true – editorial policy will stifle any such behaviour. The balance to this, though is in other areas. Journalists speak too frequently from a position of ignorance. A blogger with occupational expertise will give a more accurate picture and carries more weight for me when it comes to specific subject matter.
On the matter of blogging awards, I’ve made my position clear before. While on the one hand, the people you mention were throwing their toys out of the pram – because they don’t like Iain, on the other, I still have reservations about the whole thing. A popularity contest – which is all that this is – does not have any objective indication of quality. If it did, I might be more inclined to take notice. That said, if people choose to vote for me, that’s fine, I don’t object and I don’t have a hissy fit and withdraw from the contest as that is just plain childish. What I don’t do is exhort my readers to vote for me and I don’t publish the results. People know where to find them if they are interested.
Bloggers can certainly have expertise that those in the MSM lack, but surely this is true of any political commentator seeing as politics encompasses such a ridiculously large number of issues?
I agree that blog polls are not an objective way of measuring the quality of a blog. Then again, how do you objectively measure the quality of a newspaper or a television channel? Like I said in the post, popularity contests are nothing more than a broad indicator of how many readers like a blog. Whether or not people find this useful is up to them, I guess, but bloggers throwing toys out of prams is indeed childish.
As I see it bloggers and columnists are on a similar level as they can both offer opinions and insights but news reporting can never really be achieved by bloggers at the same level as that produced by the journalims machinery. Individual bloggers could not possibly solicit opinions from different sides of news stories or go out to various locations around the world to get the scoop. The machinery behind journalism will always keep them one step ahead in that regard.
The bloggin gpolls are fine as they are but like any popularity contest people will get annoyed. In a way it appeals to a childish sensibilities of who is better then who and what better way to react than in a childish manner by boycotting and blogging about boycotting! Playground politics – it makes me smile!
Bloggers can certainly have expertise that those in the MSM lack, but surely this is true of any political commentator seeing as politics encompasses such a ridiculously large number of issues?
Which is why on a specific issue, I will take more notice of someone who has professional expertise. When I watch journalists pontificating on railway matters, for example, I can see the gaps in their knowledge. I have to assume, therefore, that they are ignorant on other subjects too, and judge them accordingly.
I don’t know how you objectively measure the quality of, say a television channel different people will have different tastes. That’s why I ignore professional critics and make up my own mind. I mentioned objectivity as this is the reason that I shun popularity contests; it is entirely subjective. So, personally, I don’t find them useful and remain neutral with this one.
Candid, playground / toys and prams analogies are all appropriate when describing these bloggers. MSM journalists can certainly keep themselves ahead of the game in a way that bloggers can’t, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the quality is better – that depends on the individual!
LR, I take your point about the subjectivity of all this. Political commentators often do have narrow experience and simply give their two cents worth in the same way that I can! It does beg the question of why people like Toynbee get paid so much….
All good points.
I think there is one other reason that they do not want to participate – they will be shown to be less important, popular and influential than they think they are. Iain Dale jokes about him inventing political blogging in this country; Tim Ireland believes he did and does not like to be shown to be a very minor player.
It does beg the question of why people like Toynbee get paid so much….
No comment
I freely confess that I didn’t partake of the publciity for the poll this year for two very good reasons. a) Iain sent me a graphic of the voting button rather than the html for it – and I simply didn’t have the technical knowledge to display it! and b) after thinking about it for a few minutes I realised that I had been blogging for such a short time that I would probably not even register in the votes and didn’t want to end up publicising that….
I was therefore quite gob smacked when Iain e-mailed me to say that I had ended up in the top 50 right of centre……how, I have no idea, not my posters, they had no idea the contest was even being run. Whoever you are, anonymous voters, thank-you!
So there is more than one reason for ‘opting out’ – some of us are just too technically inept to partake, and too unsure of ourselves.
On the subject of ‘playing the ball not the man’ – you are spot on. I have long had a blogging interest in the Madeleine McCann story. The partisan approach taken to this saga by most bloggers and the level of personal invective and abuse in those blogs has to be seen to be believed – no editor would ever allow a journalist to write some of the pieces I have seen – even taking into acount some of the famous pieces that the MSM have been sued over, nor would comment threads be allowed to disintegrate into the foul mouthed ad hominem attacks often witnessed there.
I have a feeling that the anarchic licence demanded by bloggers at times will be the death of them. The Under Secretary of State is at this moment preparing a document for release this month which will seek to include ‘hate postings’ on the Internet into the proposed new ‘hate crimes’ legislation – and certain bloggers have only themselves to blame for that.
Blackacre, can’t disagree with that!
Anna, by opting out I mean refusing to be included in the voting rather than not publicising it. Blogs such as Liberal Conspiracy emailed Total Politics and told them to remove them from the blog poll entirely, which is why you won’t find them in any of the Top 100s. Don’t be so hard on yourself when it comes to your own position – you’ve done extremely well so far and long may it continue. I dread to think what has been said about the McCann saga, and I think you make an excellent point by saying how bloggers have brought some MSM and political attacks on themselves (even though the legislation is doomed to fail).
‘even though the legislation is doomed to fail’ – I do hope that you are right LFAT.
Bloggers with a niche interest have so much to offer, so much more to contribute than just the ability to say ‘knickers’ ( and worse!) to Gordon Brown at hourly intervals.
I am hosting a piece on assisted suicide today – something that would never have been published in the MSM, written by someone who really knows what they are talking about.
I have learnt more in the last five years by following niche blogs than I ever did in the – ahem – *cough* years before…..
I think the editor of TP is Shane Greer not Iain Dale.
Iain is the publsiher.
Good call Ollie, my mistake. Ben Duckworth actually took over as editor recently when Sarah Mackinlay left.
Anna, niche blogs do indeed contribute a lot and I wish more people knew that they even existed. The MSM controls a lot more of the public’s attention than blogs do and, while this balance has shifted in favour of the blogs, I very much doubt that the public at large know how much good writing is available to them.
And there is no place in newspapers or blogs for anyone saying ‘knickers’ to Gordon Brown.
@Blackacre – I would love anyone to find an example where I have ever claimed to have invented blogging or anything like it. Didn’t happen.
@Ollie Cromwell – Actually, it’s Ben Duckworth!
I have a feeling that the anarchic licence demanded by bloggers at times will be the death of them. The Under Secretary of State is at this moment preparing a document for release this month which will seek to include ‘hate postings’ on the Internet into the proposed new ‘hate crimes’ legislation – and certain bloggers have only themselves to blame for that.
I hate this attitude. Really. Hate, hate, hate. This is now a hate posting.
The argument that people “have only themselves to blame” perniciously accepts the idea that the State has some right to regulate speech. “Here, have some free speech, but if you use it we’ll take it away”. Enforced politeness is a powerful means of curbing speech and is frequently used by progressives. What is appalling is when others shrug and say, “oh well, it’s the fault of all those people who said rude things, they should have behaved themselves”.
Back in the days when the press was genuinely indepedent- before it was considered an “institution” and part of the ruling class, the language against powerful figures was hugely intemperate. Unpopular politicians were frequently shown in cartoons devouring babies, something that would be ooooh, bad taste, we’d better ban that, these days. It was free speech. Free speech is frequently intemperate, because people tend to get a bit noisy when they’re angry. People are very angry at the moment.
Or, did you know why Britain introduced theatre censorship, “everything must be passed by the Lord Chamberlain”? Robert Walpole, the first “prime” minister, was getting a lot of stick on the London stage, with extremely rude plays which, being before Victorian Values and the invention of modern enforced politeness, were often extremely ribald. So, the nasty git introduced censorship.
Same thing, over and over again. Until we stop blaming the victims, “it’s their own fault, they were asking for it”, we are going to keep suffering censorship. If freedom of speech is not absolute, it does not exist at all. Needless to say, therefore in Britain it does not exist at all.
There’s a lot of sour grapes. I got left out, as you know but that doesn’t mean the poll’s not good. I think Iain has run good systems in the past. I can’t speak for Total Politics though.
Anyway, the reason apparatchiks like Toynbee don’t get personal is because they are all colleagues in the state apparat. They might do some public “disagreement” in their continual lobbying, but they’re all mates when they’re invited to a dinner party. I think this was summed up best a while back by the increasingly ridiculous Janet Daley, bragging in a Telegraph column about how she and other journalists, “some on the opposite side of the political spectrum”, nudge nudge wink wink, had all been to breakfast at the palace with one of Labour’s chief courtiers (no names, you’ll have to guess!) to discuss policy. How the heck can anybody expect genuine opposition from a media whose pathetic members can be bought off with a croissant?
The MSM are just court gossips, part of the new aristocracy. They cannot be expected to oppose that which gives them their very livelihood and social status, and adds meaning to their empty, shallow existences.
@Iain Dale @LFAT
I remembered that the moment I put my foot in my mouth
>ou won’t find Bruce Anderson starting a hate campaign about George Osborne, nor will you find Polly Toynbee hurling personal abuse at Nick Clegg – it just doesn’t happen, regardless of how much they vehemently disagree with politicians or indeed other journalists.
I’m not sure about that. I think I’ve seen plenty of insults hurled around, though I think it is far worse when attacks are made on those who cannot reply.
On your journalists vs specialist bloggers point, there are pros and cons on both sides. Usually when people go off their own subject the risks are higher, as they cannot make a proper evaluation. It is usually general columists who do that. There is also variability in each author, too – Johan Hari is excellent for “this was my experience” pieces, but as soon as he cites scientific papers it needs *very* careful fact checking. I include myself here. If I’m trying to write about biology you know to watch it.
Pop-psychology pieces about bloggers and twitterers is a classic example. It comes down to reading who you trust to be reliable, both in the big media and on blogs; there are plenty of fruitcakes everywhere.
May I quote a comment made on ConHome yesterday?
“I think that much newspaper content is no better than blog content, and that our big media sites have fallen prey to the need for speed over quality. Consider the recent Baltimore mess – half a dozen big sites were simply lazy.
If news is a commodity and cannot be charged for without a special delivery mechanism (e.g., in advance) or something else to add value, then it is back to “deals” and sidelines, such as the Spectator Wine Club, and higher quality commentary/analysis,
But the most reliable and thoughtful of the blog commentators – the specialists who stick to their knitting and help us *think* by supplying distinctive insight – are as good as the specialists in newspapers, while the newspaper generalists get things factually wrong often enough to undermine their value. As an example of a quality specialist blogger I’d suggest Head of Legal.
The problem then becomes one of selection to find the free commentators you can rely on in each niche, as suggested above. “