Only 38% of Americans know what a blog is – this doesn’t surprise me in the least. I wouldn’t mind betting that in the UK the percentage is even smaller.
Load of old pants
Is it me, or is the Beeb on a mission to write loads of rubbish about blogs at the moment?
- Looming pitfalls of work blogs going over the Queen of the Skies thing again.
- Bloggers reveal their motives – well, two do anyway, and whilst their motives are interesting, they are far from representative. And check out the fascinating "12 Rules" section.
- Web logs aid disaster recovery – note the lack of consistency of terminology at the Beeb – weblogs, blogs, web logs, etc.
- Blogs take on the mainstream – a shocking example of lazy journalism, as eloquently pointed out by Gordon.
I dunno. Is the Beeb just trying to be cool and "down wid da kidz"? They even try to present news coverage in pseudo-blog format, in which they cull reports from other media (mainstream online news reporting, radio and television coverage) and cobble them together in "reporters’ log" format (recent example). This does not really give the reporters completely free rein to report with any sort of freedom (FOOC remains the only true home of that, and that is a reprocessed radio programme). The only true blogs on the Beeb, as I would understand them, have been Ivan Noble’s moving tumor diary and the fabulous but late and lamented Newslog by Nick Robinson (a man who seems like a fish out of water at ITN).
Perhaps I’m expecting too much to have truly free reporting in blog format on the Beeb – it might be the wrong place, the wrong organisation or simply the wrong style for a "serious" news reporting organisation. But it would be good if there was a little more proper understanding of the form – maybe that is too much to hope for from a body so deeply entrenched in established media formats.
Tsunami aid blog
http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/
Worth reading.
Confused Santa
I’ve just had a note from Amazon to say that the gift I ordered for Secret Santa will not be despatched in time for Christmas, and that I’ve been awarded a £5 gift token as compensation.
This is interesting, as five days ago I had a note to say that it had already been sent. This means one of the following must be true:
- the gift has been despatched and yet I’m £5 to the good
- the gift has been despatched, I’m £5 to the good and the recipient is going to get a second one which they can then sell, although my credit card may be debited twice
- the gift has not been despatched, the recipient will think they’ve been ripped-off by their Secret Santa and I’m £5 to the good
- the Amazon system is totally borked and yet I’m £5 to the good
We shall have to wait and see.
Cat Blog
Thanks to Jo for tipping me off about the excellent London News Review Cat Blog – compulsory reading that provides the first excuse in ages to update the regular reading list in the sidebar.
Bum hats
It looks like I won’t be able to get to tomorrow’s bloggers’ party after all. H is ill, with the consequence that she won’t be able to come along and drive me back from the railway station (12 miles away). The alternative, a late-night taxi, doesn’t bear consideration. Bah!
Knees up
There is a party for UK webloggers in London this Saturday. I will be there. H may be there too, although she is off work sick today, so may not be.
Year of the blog
Apparently.
Of course, some of us have been doing this blog thing for quite a while now.
Undercover Claus
WP-hack
The great thing with WP is that hacks and plug-ins are encouraged. I’ve just implemented a nice little WP hack by Wellard that seems to leave normal functioning intact, but should stop the comment spams, at least for a while. There are other plug-ins and hacks that I can deploy, so if this doesn’t work, I’ll try them.
Honestly, you’d think that running a site would be easier than this. If only people wouldn’t keep trying to butt in on my space.