I have already commented on blogging as a phenomenon in a previous post.  I’ve read recently: “the more you blog, the easier it gets.” The same could be said of drowning.

The role of blogs in media is complex, due to the dynamic range of roles blogs play.  They can be primary, secondary, or tertiary sources; they can be the news itself. Blogs are as varied as the people who write them.

A positive argument for blogging is that this practice strides towards a true democracy of information, where everyone has a soapbox to stand on (and hopefully something useful to say). The blogging community as a whole is a chaotic environment in which to discover and express richly varied opinions.  In researching my posts here, I have come to appreciate online content as a new challenge for news media, and the power of mass communication to change situations.

The content of a blog, and the style of writing in a blog, depending on its orientation, can exist anywhere on a spectrum between the prosaic and oneiric.

Blogging often feels pointless. Are we reaching anyone? And then, is a “successful” blog worth pursuing?

As a reader, do we care what a particular blogger thinks? Most blogs are obscure and shunned for a reason. There are many blogs of worth, and I can assure myself that these are generally the ones which rise to notoriety. This worthwhile minority of web logs is still too vast to follow.

I have had blogs before, abortively. A couple still exist out on the internet, floating silent, hulks.
There is nothing mysterious or romantic about an abandoned blog, it is just a testament to a lack of commitment.

It’s very plausible that I will resume blogging one day, perhaps when I most need to procrastinate (coincidentally also when I most need to not procrastinate). But I can’t see myself squeezing in nurturing a weblog into my “hectic playboy lifestyle.”

“Arguing on the internet”, it has been said, “is like pissing against the wind.” I feel that releasing text into any space online that is not bounded small enough (a small, active bulletin board, for instance) is like pissing into the wind. It accomplishes little, and on a some scale complicates matters.

Happy blogging, guys. I hope our time together has been enjoyable.

• Image: Just Married by Max Papeschi

The ABC reports that Ray complained on the program’s online public forum about their “replacing an experienced reviewer/presenter with an inexperienced one”, levelling the blame at political correctness “the reason given was they wanted a girl on the show. ‘Mass appeal’ was a direct quote from that meeting”, which the ABC has denied.

The deafening roar of fanboys behind the sacked presenter (from an audience used to interacting with the creators online) can be contrasted with sparse comments from ABC management  due to confidentiality agreements. What has been said is that the Texan presenter (rather than the more recently added Australian, Steven “Bajo” O’Donnell) was removed after several disagreements over time management – how much time they have with a game before reviewing it.

Perhaps as interesting as this news itself is the noise it has generated online – highlighting the power of the internet.

As reported more sympathetically in the Sydney Morning Herald’s article, there is a large movement forming on the internet.  Apart from a petition and a facebook group of 6,356, a large fan-run webpage reports extensively and exclusively on the exchange – all urging action.

Maybe it is memories of the historic Obama campaign driving the disappointed to the internet, believing they can change things. However, a highly mobile force with instantaneous feedback exists on the internet because it is convenient, so whether this amounts to anything is another story.

Replying to O’Donnell, Ray said “I actually believe that you believe what you’re saying, but you weren’t the one who talked to upper management for 30 minutes about their new mass appeal plan” wherein lies the controversy – sexual discrimination, gender bias for mass appeal. A ‘delightful’ comment on the ABC’s article stated “Frankly I don’t want a little girl telling me how to game, I feel my demographic has been pushed out (30-40)”, demonstrating similar sexism from the opposite angle.

It is not objectionable in itself to try to broaden the appeal of a program, but had “Hex” (a capable and seemingly ‘qualified’ presenter) not been female, the backlash would have been minor. A largely male audience for a largely male-interest program is ready to see conspiracy as soon as women are involved.

Pictures:
from Kotaku and abc.gov.au

This time: new forms of news publishing as a threat and an opportunity.

Reports of the death of newspapers might be premature, but there are some alarming figures indicating that they are indeed heading that way. Declining profitability, falling circulation, falling advertising expenditure.

The economist reports that there has been a significant change in the way consumers get their news, especially younger consumers, who get most of their news for free, online. With the recent focus in the graphs to the right, the recession probably hasn’t helped either. Circulation has been falling in America, western Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand for decades.

Most people wouldn’t pay to access newspapers online, just as they would not pay to see free TV online. Yet some people are willing to subscribe to Pay-TV.

As the New York Post reported in 2007, the New York Times decided to end their TimesSelect arrangement of charging for access to well-known writers (who protested that their readership was being restricted), which they began in 2005 when other papers were already abandoning such schemes. Both News Limited and Fairfax Media that will soon be charging for access to online content.

And as an essay on DigitalJournalist pointed out, papers are still the largest producers of news content, but are not profiting from it. Of course, being forced into a new, more versatile medium is to some a grand opportunity.

A plausible portent of the medium falling out of favour, the oldest currently published newspaper in the world (Post-och Inrikes Tidningar, founded as Ordinari Post Tijdender in 1645), ceased publishing hard copies for distribution in 2007 edition, and is available only online.

Cinemas in the 1950s and ’60s were threatened by free-to-air TV. Cinemas and movie-makers changed adapted and survived. Like free websites today, advertising on early television stations was not profitable enough to survive, and the US Congress was lobbied for over-the-air pay TV (not unlike the BBC’s Television License Fee).  Since then, free TV has become very profitable – and most people are still watching it, at least while Australian Internet is sub-par.  The difference between ads on television and online media is that sponsored content can be eliminated by the consumer very simply.

You can click the image at top right to enlarge it.

Concerning trends

Lastly, I’d like to finish this post by linking you to Crikey’s Newspaper Death Watch, plotting the fall into a world where “government becomes less accountable and society becomes stupider.”

Of course, the ABC will always be there to tell us that the whole thing is exaggerated.

Images:

http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/the-death-of-the-newspaper/?display=wide

http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0910/circling-the-drain.html

Heave ho, thieves and beggars, hoist the colors high

A BBC article reveals (from an online survey of 1008 British people) that file-sharers spend an average of £77 a year legitimately buying music, compared to the non-pirating £44 ($140 and $80 AUD respectively). It found that 75% of 16-24 year olds were willing to buy MP3s, ideally at the equivalent of $0.82per track, with 2% indicating they would pay more than £1 ($1.82).
A researcher said: “Politicians and music companies need to recognise that the nature of music consumption has changed and consumers are demanding lower prices and easier access to music”

The Australian reports that the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which promotes recording industry interests worldwide) disagrees with the study rather passionately. The ARIA Chief Executive Stephen Peach identified music as the “canary in the coal-mine”, as small file sizes make it easily distributed. ARIA focuses on moral arguments against piracy – that it’s robbing artists and distributors of income. Importantly, he identifies as a problem a consumer expectation that the internet should be free, and that music acquired online has no inherent value due to it being on a computer.

McAfee, the security technology company, has released its threats report [pdf], detailing the 300% growth in illegal file-sharing sites since torrent-tracking site The Pirate Bay was ordered to close by a Swedish judge 3 months ago. Possible factors in increased use are the economic downturn and faster and cheaper internet connections.

There have been several schemes to punish media pirates (and to frighten others), but these have been unsuccessful. The traditional threat is a huge life-ruining lawsuit and fine. Lord Mandelson in the UK announced his plan to disconnect pirates from the internet based on accusations. As has been pointed out, this in no way encourages people to go out and buy music. Not file-sharing isn’t the same as purchasing music.
Fans need a reason to buy, and some musicians know this. Further, there is a continuous growth in legal options for acquiring media content online – iTunes is immensely popular, and new systems are growing in Europe.

Piracy will go on, but consumers are willing to reward artists through purchases and by attending concerts.
The music and film industries have to adapt.

Picture: George Chambers – Anglo-Dutch Naval Squadron Attacked the Barbary on August 27 1816, http://store.encore-editions.com/Artists/irates.html

Planning and designing a document for distribution is important – it should be attractive and logically structured.

A designer has great power and responsibility. Images can be both attractive and disruptive.

As 79% of web users always scan and only 16% read word-by-word, it is important to make documents easily navigable. Keywords are a simple way of doing this – not just for the eye, but the judicious use of a browser’s search function (Ctrl+F).  Headings and subheadings need to be accurate and succinct, and bulleted lists clearly define separate points.  Paragraphs are ideally short, and deal with only one idea.

An online document should only be half the length of a printed document.

On the internet especially, you must win and maintain the viewer’s attention.

Distributing a document on the internet negates printing costs, makes it easy to update material, and allows the information to be circulated faster.  As a ‘soft copy’ medium, the information on a page can be updated at any point.

Reading from a monitor is inherently more tiring than from paper, and apparently 25% slower than from paper. While today’s LCD monitors are sharper, clearer, more accurately coloured and relatively free of flicker compared to the CRT monitor (whosecurved screen reflected everything, everywhere), it is still a backlit source and may cause eye strain and headaches. The phrase “staring into a lightbulb” encouraged many “webmasters” as they were known in the day to have white text on a black background. While the high contrast between the two is desirable, dark-on-light is more readable and less weird.  Further web document leaves printing to the discretion of a viewer, so it is important that it is still readable when printed.

Increasing white space by reducing the amount of text on screen, indenting and increasing line spacing can make text more readable.

Due to the different way websites are navigated (for instance arriving directly on a page from an external referrer or search engine), each page needs to make sense on its own.

The fundamentals of good design are the same for both media, but there are additional considerations when producing for the internet.

Hulsey, K ‘Computer Graphics Workspace Ergonomics’ http://www.khulsey.com/workspace_ergonomics.html 2008
Nielson, J ‘Writing for the Web’ http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html 1997
Parker, RC ‘Designing documents for web distribution’ 1990

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

In Blogger’s words:

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.
Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.
(…) blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others.

A feature of blogging that makes it a valuable platform for communication is immediacy.

All the reasons to write: relaxation and pleasure, reflection and refinement of thought, personal expression, and persuasion – all of these things can be done through blogging.  The accessibility and arguable transparency of the internet makes it a perfect host for persuasive writing.

Martin Luther’s The 95 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences spread quickly throughout Germany in two weeks and Europe in two months – thanks to the printing press. A great potential exists for the same in blogging, though the signal-to-noise ratio in a virtual space filled with unstoppable spewing blogs and a world filled with the literate and information overloaded is a starkly different environment. Some well-meaning blogs wish to be the spark in the flour-mill that starts the inferno, but every speck is already a flying ember in a fire-storm of dubious causes. Very little will catch.

Twitter is a microblogging platform wherein users post <140 character text-only banalities, though it recently received a huge amount of positive coverage for its role in the unrest in Iran after their 2009 elections.

Tumblr is a multimedia blogging platform, where users post photos, videos, quotes, text, viewing their subscribed feeds in one stream.

Blogger and WordPress are two currently popular, customisable and free blog hosts, in the traditional mould.

All these services are platforms for the democratisation of information, enabling each person to be not just a consumer but a broadcaster – often a waste.  A newspaper at its best, says The Economist, holds governments and companies to account. There is no reason that a blog cannot do that.  Unlike a journalist, a blogger has not necessarily had any training, and thus language and reporting ability might be underdeveloped, and ideas of journalistic integrity might be foreign.

There are many different blogging communities, defined by host, by interests, locations, needs, languages, causes, and styles.

Blogs are a significant enough pop-cultural force to be reported in “conventional” media, such as the Sunday Herald Sun’s report on the blog Things Bogans Like (“The bogan has taken to the Melbourne Cup like an aspiring actress to a terminally ill oil magnate”).

The White House maintains a blog, as do many political figures and corporations around the world, who appreciate it as a medium to communicate to the specifically interested person. As an example of cause-centred communities, there are feminist bloggers of many persuasions, also atheist blogs, parenting blogs, and many others.

In short, the blog is  another way to communicate, with great potential and little prestige – both due to its inclusive nature.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Worse, the public is largely unaware. Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities is distinctly predatory (contrast with Tumblr‘s).

By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.

Facebook allows users to upload photos, their favorite music, books, films, home address, phone numbers, e-mails, clubs, jobs, educational history, political affiliations and other information.

It’s no secret that the NSA recruits on Facebook. That’s fine, many bodies do.

A tangled relationship has been identified between Facebook’s founders and financiers and other internet businesses, and with intelligence and military organisations (though it is rather dubious). It draws a line to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s OSINT/ELINT body, the Information Awareness Office.

“the IAO has the stated mission to gather as much information as possible about everyone, in a centralized location, for easy perusal by the United States government, including (though not limited to) Internet activity, credit card purchase histories, airline ticket purchases, car rentals, medical records, educational transcripts, driver’s licenses, utility bills, tax returns, and any other available data.”

This is a concern, as

The so-called “Privacy Policy” of Facebook includes a statement saying that they “may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship.” It goes on to say that, “We may be required to disclose customer information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law or to protect our interests or property. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.”

Anything published on this platform is signed away forever. I consider this a media issue.

Facebook has the right to use or sell your photos.

The "Jackson Jive" act - from dailymail.co.uk report

Media Watch relates the attention that has been granted to it around the world (even on the popular far-right O’Reilly Factor), and the questions it raises about Australia, also citing a violated section of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice regarding the broadcast of material which would “provoke … serious contempt or severe ridicule” on discriminatory levels.

The report on ABC Radio’s “PM” mentions the questions raised internationally about racism, humour and taste in Australian culture, and the responsibility of the producers. Amongst all this probing, Germaine Greer called it a “piece of shit.”

Apart from needing to follow the guidelines, producers need to remember that when creating something for their audience, their audience might suddenly become international and angry.

The name and visual elements of this blog are easily an insight into both blogging and the mass media, and that is the story I’m sticking with.

On this blog, while it lasts, I intend to discuss recent media issues, sharing analysis and personal opinion on current matters relating to the web, print, television and other media.

Consider this post a standing invitation to a conversation – I’m happy to respond to reader replies.

Picture, right:
The Teutonising of Turkey (Punch, October 5, 1910)
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28003/28003-h/28003-h.htm