This is reply to the Cornell Daily Sun’s news story, Blogging About Nothing. Unfortunately, their site does not currently allow comments due to technical errors, so I am forced to reply here.

You say that “very few” bloggers are experts on what they write, but without evidence. I write about IT; I’m an expert in that field. I read hundreds of technical blogs, all from experts and leaders in their fields.

You inarticulately write that “there is money in these blogs.” Blogs are publishing entities–there is not money in the blogs, but in their readership. It’s not fair to claim that making money is an impure motive for writing a blog, unless you want to include all mainstream media as well. The New York Times is plastered with ads. Every news channel runs expensive video commercials. Being paid, I think, is an incentive to do better work. And, in the world of blogging, those paid the most are the ones attracting the most readers, and therefore doing the best work.

You write that the popularity of blogging is forcing news media to change their tactics. That’s not a problem; it’s evolution and selection pressure. If we can obsolete news, that makes us better suited to the public need for information.

You write that news stories about James Kim were inaccurately fact checked when they suggested that Google Maps may have mislead his family. Even though there’s circumstantial evidence that the family did not use Google Maps, the route it planned was identical to the route they may have followed using paper maps. So, bloggers who wrote about a Google maps connection were actually more daring than traditional media, who probably dropped the stories in the face of legal pressure.

For more, go read Christian Montoya’s response which addresses more fundamentals than the particular points I’m interested in.

3 Responses to “On “Blogging About Nothing””

1. Montoya says:

   1/30/2007 at 11:28 pm

   Good point on the money aspect. A one day ad in the Sun costs $600. The Sun might be free on campus but all the alumni subscriptions are not free and the advertising is expensive. There’s money in these newspapers, I tell you, and if you can’t write, why not be a Sun columnist?

   Reply
2. Maria says:

   1/31/2007 at 11:58 pm

   Glad you wrote a response to that article. You make a lot of good points.

   Reply
3. president of facebook says:

   3/21/2007 at 3:30 pm

   Blogging About Blogging About Nothing…

   The Cornell blogosphere is on fire again! Latest topic of interest is Tara Tavernia’s “Blogging About Nothing” piece in The Cornell Daily Sun. A small section sums up her point:
   The problem is that the interesting stories are mixed wi…

   Reply