“I mean, I have academic degrees. Doesn’t that mean anything to you filthy, twittering, easily-duped blogpeasants?”
*Alex S. Jones is director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Not that that makes him better than you, just that—well, okay. So maybe it does make him better than you…
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more: from Matt Welch, uberhipster (h/t Beck)
Ten bucks says that bloggers will be the ones with the juiciest scoops at the conventions this year.
Plus real time coverage minus the corporate media influence, which should make for better reporting.
What I’m afraid of is too many syncophant bloggers at both conventions, and not enough dissenting coverage.
Judging from the lame-ass efforts of the DNC to groom the bloggers they choose before inviting them-I mean before inviting and then dis-inviting them- I’m not holding my breath.
The ivory towers of the media are not so safe and secure anymore. And the fact that Mr Jones feels the need to address the issue by coming down out of the tower is an indication that they need to, ya know, let those blogpeasants know…
Mr. Jones is receiving an ass ripping across the blogosphere. It’s probably one of the most genuinely bipartisan events in political blogging history. So congratulations to Alex (S.) Jones for bringing together so many people in harmonious and communal flaming.
Napalm sticks to academics too.
“However, bloggers, with few exceptions … see journalism as bound by norms and standards that they reject. That encourages these common attributes of the blogosphere: vulgarity, scorching insults, bitter denunciations, one-sided arguments, erroneous assertions and the array of qualities that might be expected from a blustering know-it-all in a bar.”
Pot. Kettle. Black. The difference is, few bloggers try to pass any of that off as straight, neutral journalism.
Just sayin’.
-Eric
Actually, his page at Harvard (http://ksgfaculty.harvard.edu/Alex_Jones) doesn’t mention any degrees, which probably just means that he doesn’t have a PhD. It does, however, mention that he’s currently also employed by PBS and used to be employed by the New York Times, which explains a lot.
“I mean, I have academic degrees. Doesn’t that mean anything to you filthy, twittering, easily-duped blogpeasants?â€Â
Why yes, it does mean something, but probably not what he thinks it means. Besides, I can always consult the six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Mmmm…, bacon.
Better in what way?
Well, I’ve got 98.6 degrees from Fahrenheit. To add some international flavor I went back to school and got 37 degrees from Celsius.
So there.
The steak or the sizzle
Steak on a vegetarian blog, a post in defiance of elitism
Today’s LA Times op-ed piece “Blogs no substitute for journalism, the steak or the sizzle” by Alex S. Jones bears reading by bloggers and journalists alike if only to reemphasize the fact that journalism is a living, breathing entity, and not some arcane, ivory towered refugee hiding from the future and the electronic/community on line.
Calling for a definition of journalism that is somehow above and beyond the blogosphere Jones has once again fallen victim to the misdirected fear that journalism and journalists will somehow be replaced by bloggers. Nothing could be farther from the truth. To believe that is to believe as bloggers that we have to periodically shut down our systems lest scores of vacuum tubes overheat and the “COMPUTER”…oh, no that was “Eniac.” This is the Twenty First century and bloggers are keeping journals on line, journalists are making journals in newsprint, on the airwaves and, oh yes, on cable or is that just CNN and well I can see how this might confuse someone who is the Director of the Harvard, Kennedy Media ____think tank, a Pulitzer Prize winner and fourth generation heir to a news paper family.
Ben Franklin became a publisher and journalist because he invented a more efficient movable type, or was it the other way around? HL Mencken was a “gossip” and a yellow journalist but as a ‘writer’ he dominated his decades and profoundly influenced the public weal and Ted Turner – well we probably shouldn’t go there.
My father became a journalist after the war in Europe, studied at the Lorne Greene School for broadcasters in Toronto, yea that ‘Loren Greene’, anchored television news in 2 markets and retired as an Asia Post Director for the Voice of America. Computers were just on the horizon then and I remember my father complaining loudly while at the same time admiring its’ enormous potential to transform journalistic art, he would have been a prolific blogger.
The ‘Poynter’ is this if you choose journalism as a vocation or as avocation what matters the method or the medium, as long as you care for the story and practice the craft honestly and faithfully, you are a Journalist. Professional associations, think tanks, awards aside no other manner of credential is required beyond that of your peers and your readers. We admire a blog that publishes with acumen and constancy, wheather your passion is sports or war, gardening or conservation, journal or blog as long as it remains your passion the journal is it’s own voice and the voice is on-line.
Nothing speaks more graphically to the eye-of-the-storm potential of bloggers-as-journalists than the postings of the Baghdad Blogger. Journalism and opportunity are inseparable bedfellows. Whether it’s on the battlefield or a convention floor, the results can be crude, even hysterical but when the dust settles a journal exists and the news has been delivered. All that remains is for the pundits and academics to catch up and write the history.