"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
One of the great things about the website of The Albany Times-Union, timesunion.com, is its blogs' section which now contains a new sub-section devoted to Capital Region Voices.
Glens Falls' (and Saratoga's too, depending on where you pick it up) "Hometown Daily" limits its blogs to people who already have columns or articles in the paper. Basically, it gives more space to people who already have space.
What's nice about timesunion.com is that, while it does have some blogs for editors and staff members, it also offers a platform for ordinary people whose voices aren't already represented in the print edition. It presents readers with new, alternative voices, something badly lacking in mainstream journalistic enterprises.
One of the excellent new blogs is written by the widely respected and admired Albany social justice advocate Dr. Alice Green.
Another new one is authored by local political activist, baker and friend of this blog Matt Funiciello.
2 comments:
As usual you've hit the nail squarely on its head. Here are a few things I've noticed lately.
We recently sent our media release about Adirondack Almanack's fourth anniversary to the local media - it was completely ignored. Apparently, we are the enemy, or competition. A perfect example of why there are blogs in the first place - the MSM simply wants to use their power to defend the status quo which they profit from.
Searching the Times Union or Glens Falls Post Star's site does not include the blogs. Basically, they have given a voice that's behind a a wall of sound of the paper's voice.
Adirondack Almanack has been linked in the last month, for the first time (though only once mentioned by name), by a few of the papers. The links draw only a few hits (sometimes none), far below the numbers we get from even some of the smallest local blogs. Clearly these MSM blogs are drawing very little traffic. Part of the reason, I believe, is their failure to acknowledge the actual blogosphere in hopes their own fake blogosphere will be dominate.
I wish Alice and Matt the best of luck with their new blogs, but I'm afraid that they could have done a lot better on their own and landed a blow against the elitist, top-down, "we know what's best for you," local media they have been fighting for years.
John, you're right about MSM blogs. When I read Ken Tingley's or Will Doolittle's blogs, I almost never see anything new or different as compared to their print columns. There are a few (TU's Capital Confidental, Daily News' Daily Politics, Foreign Policy's Passport) that actually add a degree thoughtful, original journalism. But most MSM blogs just provide more of the same old same old, only more self-serving and less well thought out. By contrast, independent blogs like the Almanack or Planet Albany actually offer something different, whether I agree with it or not.
I'm not sure MSM outlets think you as the enemy. I'm not sure they're plugged in enough to think of you or other local blogs at all (unless you criticize editors by name, as I've found out).
In reality, most MSM journalists tend to view bloggers as amateurs sitting home in their pajamas offering potshots from the cheap seats. There is certainly a lot of crap in the blogsophere and the Internet should not be viewed uncritically. And obviously some of it is annoyance with the watchdog being held accountable in the same way they pat themselves on the back for doing to others.
But pajama clad blogger generalization ignores the fact that there is good original independent journalism and thoughtful commentary out there as well. This broad brush dismissal is not only self-serving but self-defeating. With newspapers famously in crisis, they need to broaden their horizons a little and start viewing bloggers as potential collaborators rather than dismissing them out of hand.
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