Last year, the Wall Street Journal published an article called “America’s Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124026415808636575.html). In the article, authors Mark Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne describe the startling advent of blogging and why the trendy medium has become profitable. The authors write:
“In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers or firefighters.”
“...we are a nation of over 20 million bloggers, with 1.7 million profiting from the work, and 452,000 of those using blogging as their primary source of income. That's almost 2 million Americans getting paid by the word, the post, or the click...”
I realize blogging is popular, commanding the attention of countless established celebrities, pundits, and intellectuals, and launching the careers of countless more. But I’ve never been comfortable with blogging, mainly because I don’t have anything to say or if I did, I don’t think anybody would care to read it.
There are two major issues with blogging identified in the article:
1.) The challenge of integrity in providing information
Penn and Zalesne write:
"[Blogging] could make us the most noisily opinionated nation on earth.”
"Less and less of our information flow is devoted to gathering facts, and more and more is going toward popularizing opinion. Twenty-four-hour news channels have been replaced by 24-hour opinion channels. The chatter is the story.”
“Almost no blogging is by subscription; rather, it owes it economic model to on-line advertising. Bloggers make money if their consumers click the ads on their sites. Some sites even pay writers by the click, which is of course a system that promotes sensationalism, or doing whatever it takes to get noticed.”
Blogs prioritize opinion over objective, informed analysis, which contributes to a societal discourse dominated by insatiable, regressive hedonism instead of to the education and research that are key to civility and informed citizenship.
2.) The narrowness of success
Penn and Zalesne report:
“Demographically, bloggers are extremely well educated: three out of every four are college graduates. Most are white males reporting above-average incomes. One out of three young people reports blogging, but bloggers who do it for a living successfully are 2% of bloggers overall.”
Blogging isn’t profitable or constructive for everyone and highlights and maybe even exacerbates how certain views and backgrounds are prioritized over others.
As far as the first issue goes, don't you think we are already a noisily opiniated nation? We are provided so many other ways on the internet- like FB- to provide information, oppinions, etc. I think it's the readers downfall if he/she chooses to click on someone's blog and like it, believe it, follow it, etc.
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