Light blogging ahead
From this view...
...to this. Ahh, sweet vacation time.
...to this. Ahh, sweet vacation time.
A corporate blog is good for your business
Butler Sheetmetal estimates an increase in turnover by 35-40% since the inception of its corporate blog (in May 2004?). Sounds like a success to me.
Via A PR Guru's Musings.
Via A PR Guru's Musings.
FT about corporate blogging
Financial Times: "The rise of the corporate blogger GUIDE TO BLOGGING"
"The whole corporate blogging issue is beginning to bubble up," says Peter Hirshberg, vice-president of Technorati, a blogging search engine site. "It gives people in a company the opportunity to be people interacting with other people. Corporations are just big faceless entities right now."
"The whole corporate blogging issue is beginning to bubble up," says Peter Hirshberg, vice-president of Technorati, a blogging search engine site. "It gives people in a company the opportunity to be people interacting with other people. Corporations are just big faceless entities right now."
Should media sponsor journalist blogs?
Wall Street Journal: Should Newspapers Sponsor Blogs Written by Reporters?
"Now, more newspapers are warming to the idea of offering official reporter-written blogs. The Boston Globe is considering official blogs following the Mercury News's model. At the Dallas Morning News, more than 20 sports reporters contribute to a blog on the paper's Web site. Their posts must be screened by editors, but a spokesman said that requirement might be dropped."
Link via Tim Porter. [Edit: WSJ, not NY Times - thanks Scott.]
"Now, more newspapers are warming to the idea of offering official reporter-written blogs. The Boston Globe is considering official blogs following the Mercury News's model. At the Dallas Morning News, more than 20 sports reporters contribute to a blog on the paper's Web site. Their posts must be screened by editors, but a spokesman said that requirement might be dropped."
Link via Tim Porter. [Edit: WSJ, not NY Times - thanks Scott.]
"Hello, kiss my bra"
Maybe I just have too vivid imagination, but how do foreign tourists interpret the advertisments from the Swedish Post, currently on display in the Stockholm subway? "Hello, kiss my bra".
'Ola' is a male name ('Hola' is 'hi' in Spanish, pronounced 'ola'), 'bra' means good or well = Ola kisses well.
Or for the more perverted minds who think of something else than 'kiss', the ad might have more gay connotations. I'll leave it up to you to figure that one out by yourself.
I know, I know. I should put energy into something more useful, but my brain has prematurely gone on vacation. The rest of me will follow suit this afternoon.
'Ola' is a male name ('Hola' is 'hi' in Spanish, pronounced 'ola'), 'bra' means good or well = Ola kisses well.
Or for the more perverted minds who think of something else than 'kiss', the ad might have more gay connotations. I'll leave it up to you to figure that one out by yourself.
I know, I know. I should put energy into something more useful, but my brain has prematurely gone on vacation. The rest of me will follow suit this afternoon.
RSS 4 DI
Dagens Industri, the leading business daily in Sweden, now comes with an RSS feed for headline news. From what I can tell the feed was launched on July 11 (? I can only find the first 100 posts). This is interesting also in another perspective. As I wrote in January, Dagens Industri normally moves articles online after about a week, so any blogger that tries to link to an old DI article will be greeted by this error message:
By introducing an RSS feed maybe DI is moving towards better permanence on the web.
Feed: http://ditrader.di.se/News/rss.aspx
By introducing an RSS feed maybe DI is moving towards better permanence on the web.
Feed: http://ditrader.di.se/News/rss.aspx
MMS to Flickr
I am trying to learn how to send photos from my cell phone to Flickr (I know, that's sooo 2004). It seems to be working out quite well.
Here is a photo of Nybroviken, Stockholm city, and the ferry to Djurgården. It was taken while I was waiting for the Raphael Saadiq concert earlier this month.
Here is a photo of Nybroviken, Stockholm city, and the ferry to Djurgården. It was taken while I was waiting for the Raphael Saadiq concert earlier this month.
CBS starts blog to watch itself
From NY Times (free reg. required): CBS News is turning its eye on itself.
"As part of an ambitious attempt to revive CBSNews.com with a broad array of free video news produced just for its Web site, CBS said yesterday that it would also introduce a Web log to comment on CBS newscasts, whether broadcast or online."
"[...] the Web log, to be called Public Eye, will assemble questions from viewers and criticism from various sources, and immediately bring in reactions from the CBS newsroom."
"As part of an ambitious attempt to revive CBSNews.com with a broad array of free video news produced just for its Web site, CBS said yesterday that it would also introduce a Web log to comment on CBS newscasts, whether broadcast or online."
"[...] the Web log, to be called Public Eye, will assemble questions from viewers and criticism from various sources, and immediately bring in reactions from the CBS newsroom."
More blog research
Here are a few quick links to recent blog related research. A conclusion can be that corporate blogs are good for your brand, but many consumers don't "get blogs", in that they don't understand how they work and much of their usefulness is lost.
Catalyst Group has a new study (pdf) about blogs and usability. It is interesting reading and not all thumbs up for the blogosphere.
Market Sentinel and Weboptimiser have published a white paper (pdf) about the impact of RSS, search and blogging for brands. [Via Marketing Studies.]
"87% of the population use search engines as their primary means of finding sites. Search results are increasingly impacted by commentary from message boards and blogs."
Backbone Media has published a report (pdf) that gives valueable insights into the world of corporate blogging. Some conclusions are:
"Over 83% of bloggers saw a traffic increase, while for 54% of respondents the blog represented less than 35% of their traffic. For 5% of bloggers their blog represented 100% of traffic. Journalists contacted 59% of survey respondents. Less than half of bloggers received a published article from the contact. 18% of bloggers have experienced negative PR." [Via Media Orchard.]
Catalyst Group has a new study (pdf) about blogs and usability. It is interesting reading and not all thumbs up for the blogosphere.
Market Sentinel and Weboptimiser have published a white paper (pdf) about the impact of RSS, search and blogging for brands. [Via Marketing Studies.]
"87% of the population use search engines as their primary means of finding sites. Search results are increasingly impacted by commentary from message boards and blogs."
Backbone Media has published a report (pdf) that gives valueable insights into the world of corporate blogging. Some conclusions are:
"Over 83% of bloggers saw a traffic increase, while for 54% of respondents the blog represented less than 35% of their traffic. For 5% of bloggers their blog represented 100% of traffic. Journalists contacted 59% of survey respondents. Less than half of bloggers received a published article from the contact. 18% of bloggers have experienced negative PR." [Via Media Orchard.]
Some guy with a website reports
Podcast: citizen reporting about the hurricane Dennis. File under "hilarious". Also see this old favourite.
Sign of the times #2
Spray advertises image search by putting the spotlight on an anonymized girl's panties. The animation is supposed to show a spotlight that lights up her entire body, but the animation gets stuck half-way through (on my computer). If you click on the ad you are sent to a page with Paris Hilton photos (!). From Expressen on July 7 (a new Spray animation is currently on that page).
Sign of the times #1
Swedish pin-up chic Natacha about her post-model career:
"I framtiden vill jag gärna jobba med att retuschera och bearbeta bilder."
(In the future, I would like to work with retouching and adapting photos.)
"I framtiden vill jag gärna jobba med att retuschera och bearbeta bilder."
(In the future, I would like to work with retouching and adapting photos.)
Wikipedia a valuable resource about London bombings
Citizen reporters helped traditional media in reporting from the London bombings. Camera phones, photo sharing sites and blogs enable people on the scene to share their experiences immedeately to media consumers thirsting for information, especially valuable on an event like this where traditional media had restricted access to the locations and could take very few pictures of their own.
Another way of describing the event is the "7 July 2005 London bombings" page at Wikipedia, already a massive resource for information about what happened and how things progress. It is further evidence to the growth of open source, collaborative ways of collecting and distributing information, as an addition to traditional sources of information, such as media and governmental/official sources. Flickr, Wikipedia and Technorati are already up there with BBC and for example the offical London site as places we turn to to become informed.
Technorati Tags: London 7/7, London Bombing
Another way of describing the event is the "7 July 2005 London bombings" page at Wikipedia, already a massive resource for information about what happened and how things progress. It is further evidence to the growth of open source, collaborative ways of collecting and distributing information, as an addition to traditional sources of information, such as media and governmental/official sources. Flickr, Wikipedia and Technorati are already up there with BBC and for example the offical London site as places we turn to to become informed.
Technorati Tags: London 7/7, London Bombing
Citizen journalism in the London bombings
The role of citizen journalism has been clear in the horrific London bombings. Media ask citizens to send in photos and videos from recent events, the latest example from CNN, asking for footage of hurricane Dennis (via Tim Porter). Here are some articles about the role of citizen journalism in the London incidents.
- Editor & Publisher: Newspapers Aided By Phone Cameras in London Coverage
"Within minutes of the first blast we had received images from the public and we had 50 images within an hour. Now there are thousands. We had a gallery of still photographs from the public online, and they were incredibly powerful."
- The Guardian: Public provides new dimension to media coverage
"Several U.S. television executives said that as far as they knew, it was the first time video taken from a cellular phone was used during coverage of a major story."
- SR P1 Kulturnytt: Bloggar och privata mobiltelefonfilmer kompletterar nyhetsrapporteringen
"Journalistik och ögonvittnesskildringar smälter samman när bloggar och privatpersoners mobilfotografier blir en del av nyhetsmediernas rapportering om Londonattentaten."
- The Christian Science Monitor: Citizen journalists pass the test in London
"The BBC later reported that its website had received almost 1000 photos taken by cellphone and 20 pieces of amateur video."
- The Boston Globe: Camera phones play major role in coverage
"The London news service ITV News began to periodically display phone numbers to which viewers were invited to send text messages or video phone pictures. It and other networks have since broadcast many viewer-created pictures and video clips."
- The Washington Post: Witnesses to History
"Rather than relying on unfocused, rambling blog entries, the London papers and the Beeb ran pithy postings from the people who were there. They ran alongside the staff reporters' accounts and presumably with the same amount of editing."
- The Washington Post: Eyewitness Journalism: Camera Phones Lend Immediacy to Images of Disaster
"Some of the most intimate images of yesterday's bomb blasts in London came from cell phones equipped with cameras and video recorders, demonstrating how a technology originally marketed as entertainment has come to play a significant role in up-to-the-minute news."
- Tim Porter: London Bombings: The Unread Newspaper
"The first-day story no longer belongs to newspapers - and hasn't for a long time. It isn't even the property of professional journalists any longer."
- The Wall Street Journal: Bloggers and Photographers Chronicle Chaos in London
"As journalists scrambled to cover the London bomb blasts, ordinary citizens went online to share pictures snapped by cameraphones and reports of what they saw. At Technorati.com, a search engine for blogs, eight of the top 10 searches Thursday were related to the blasts."
- The Salt Lake Tribune: Technology is changing how big media cover stories
"Welcome to the world of citizen newsgathering, where technology and the age-old desire to communicate hot information, be it hard news or soft gossip, are converging and forcing traditional news outlets to dramatically change the way they cover big news events."
More: some 10,000+ posts about the London bombings via Technorati.
Some links via Hypergene's linkblog.
Technorati Tags: London 7/7, London Bombing
- Editor & Publisher: Newspapers Aided By Phone Cameras in London Coverage
"Within minutes of the first blast we had received images from the public and we had 50 images within an hour. Now there are thousands. We had a gallery of still photographs from the public online, and they were incredibly powerful."
- The Guardian: Public provides new dimension to media coverage
"Several U.S. television executives said that as far as they knew, it was the first time video taken from a cellular phone was used during coverage of a major story."
- SR P1 Kulturnytt: Bloggar och privata mobiltelefonfilmer kompletterar nyhetsrapporteringen
"Journalistik och ögonvittnesskildringar smälter samman när bloggar och privatpersoners mobilfotografier blir en del av nyhetsmediernas rapportering om Londonattentaten."
- The Christian Science Monitor: Citizen journalists pass the test in London
"The BBC later reported that its website had received almost 1000 photos taken by cellphone and 20 pieces of amateur video."
- The Boston Globe: Camera phones play major role in coverage
"The London news service ITV News began to periodically display phone numbers to which viewers were invited to send text messages or video phone pictures. It and other networks have since broadcast many viewer-created pictures and video clips."
- The Washington Post: Witnesses to History
"Rather than relying on unfocused, rambling blog entries, the London papers and the Beeb ran pithy postings from the people who were there. They ran alongside the staff reporters' accounts and presumably with the same amount of editing."
- The Washington Post: Eyewitness Journalism: Camera Phones Lend Immediacy to Images of Disaster
"Some of the most intimate images of yesterday's bomb blasts in London came from cell phones equipped with cameras and video recorders, demonstrating how a technology originally marketed as entertainment has come to play a significant role in up-to-the-minute news."
- Tim Porter: London Bombings: The Unread Newspaper
"The first-day story no longer belongs to newspapers - and hasn't for a long time. It isn't even the property of professional journalists any longer."
- The Wall Street Journal: Bloggers and Photographers Chronicle Chaos in London
"As journalists scrambled to cover the London bomb blasts, ordinary citizens went online to share pictures snapped by cameraphones and reports of what they saw. At Technorati.com, a search engine for blogs, eight of the top 10 searches Thursday were related to the blasts."
- The Salt Lake Tribune: Technology is changing how big media cover stories
"Welcome to the world of citizen newsgathering, where technology and the age-old desire to communicate hot information, be it hard news or soft gossip, are converging and forcing traditional news outlets to dramatically change the way they cover big news events."
More: some 10,000+ posts about the London bombings via Technorati.
Some links via Hypergene's linkblog.
Technorati Tags: London 7/7, London Bombing
Increase in online ad spending
Internet is growing in importance as advertising medium, according to a survey from the Association of Swedish Advertisers. 89 of its members answered a survey about online advertising and:
- 72% advertise online today. Banners and co-operation are the most common ways, but more than half use search engine advertising.
- Nine out of ten see online advertising as a complement, most often to direct mail.
- Half will increase their online media budget this year, 45% spend as much as lasy tear.
- 80% spend 10% or less of their advertising budget online.
These numbers are surprisingly high, considering media consumers' negative attitudes towards online ads. In a recent survey (pdf), also from the Association of Swedish Advertisers, Swedes say that online advertising is the second most impopular form of advertising, second only to email spam. 52% of the respondents say they dislike online advertising. Similarily, only 8% say they like online ads. Only radio commercials (6%) and spam (1%) get lower figures.
Movie commercials (43%) and sponsoring (39%) are the most popular forms of advertising.
- 72% advertise online today. Banners and co-operation are the most common ways, but more than half use search engine advertising.
- Nine out of ten see online advertising as a complement, most often to direct mail.
- Half will increase their online media budget this year, 45% spend as much as lasy tear.
- 80% spend 10% or less of their advertising budget online.
These numbers are surprisingly high, considering media consumers' negative attitudes towards online ads. In a recent survey (pdf), also from the Association of Swedish Advertisers, Swedes say that online advertising is the second most impopular form of advertising, second only to email spam. 52% of the respondents say they dislike online advertising. Similarily, only 8% say they like online ads. Only radio commercials (6%) and spam (1%) get lower figures.
Movie commercials (43%) and sponsoring (39%) are the most popular forms of advertising.
Spanish blog survey
Via Loic LeMeur's Wiki I found some excellent research from last year about the Spanish speaking blogosphere (Spain, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay). The average Spanish (speaking) blogger seems to be:
- male (77%)
- between 20 and 26 years (graph)
- an experienced internet user (more than 5 years)
(graphs)
- about half have a broadband connection
- rarely shops online, about 80% buys online 1-5 times per year or never
- 33% use Blogger, 24% MovableType (graphs)
- 41% have their own domain name
- 68% have a blogroll with recommendations of other blogs (graph)
- 65% of bloggers have never had to erase a comment
- 89% of bloggers post from home, 37% post from work. (graphs)
- 37% spend half an hour per day on their blog
- 58% launched their blog a year ago, or less
- blogging makes 66% watch less tv and 42% sleep less (graph)
- bloggers think blogs are mainly a form of free expression (graph)
- 28% of bloggers and 19% of blog readers use an RSS reader
- male (77%)
- between 20 and 26 years (graph)
- an experienced internet user (more than 5 years)
(graphs)
- about half have a broadband connection
- rarely shops online, about 80% buys online 1-5 times per year or never
- 33% use Blogger, 24% MovableType (graphs)
- 41% have their own domain name
- 68% have a blogroll with recommendations of other blogs (graph)
- 65% of bloggers have never had to erase a comment
- 89% of bloggers post from home, 37% post from work. (graphs)
- 37% spend half an hour per day on their blog
- 58% launched their blog a year ago, or less
- blogging makes 66% watch less tv and 42% sleep less (graph)
- bloggers think blogs are mainly a form of free expression (graph)
- 28% of bloggers and 19% of blog readers use an RSS reader
Italian blog survey
Via the IAOCblog I found a new study about the Italian blogosphere. The IULM University in Milan has performed 600 online interviews which shows that Italian bloggers are mainly young:
"40% are students, 20% employees and 15% self-employed. Half of them are "mature" bloggers active for more than 6 months, while 9% are newbies who have just started blogging.
Italian bloggers are frequently online to search for information. The majority of those interviewed updates the blog at least three times per week, and 21% declares of writing on a daily basis. In addition, 65% of bloggers reads the blogs listed on his sidebar, 31% those of his friends, and 55% those of his readers."
The survey also found that the Italian blogosphere grows at a 5% monthly rate.
Disclaimer: The fact that Italian bloggers are mainly young, might be an effect of the survey only interviewed respondents aged 20-35. I am not sure this is the case, but this page suggests that it is.
The respondents have also answered questions about the reasons why they started blogging, but I only found notes about this in Italian (and Babelfish doesn't give a perfect translation). If anyone has more details in English I'd be happy to read it so I can compare with my Swedish survey.
More country specific blog research can be found here: Iran, Poland, Sweden (pdf), USA.
"40% are students, 20% employees and 15% self-employed. Half of them are "mature" bloggers active for more than 6 months, while 9% are newbies who have just started blogging.
Italian bloggers are frequently online to search for information. The majority of those interviewed updates the blog at least three times per week, and 21% declares of writing on a daily basis. In addition, 65% of bloggers reads the blogs listed on his sidebar, 31% those of his friends, and 55% those of his readers."
The survey also found that the Italian blogosphere grows at a 5% monthly rate.
Disclaimer: The fact that Italian bloggers are mainly young, might be an effect of the survey only interviewed respondents aged 20-35. I am not sure this is the case, but this page suggests that it is.
The respondents have also answered questions about the reasons why they started blogging, but I only found notes about this in Italian (and Babelfish doesn't give a perfect translation). If anyone has more details in English I'd be happy to read it so I can compare with my Swedish survey.
More country specific blog research can be found here: Iran, Poland, Sweden (pdf), USA.
Flickr from London
Bloggers are sharing photos today from the horrible events in London. Several photo pools have been set up at Flickr where many photos already have had several thousands of hits: London Bomb Blasts and London Explosions.
This story is actually the first major news story that I found out about on a blog. I read about it first by reading the RSS feed of Davil Hall's Månhus beta.
This story is actually the first major news story that I found out about on a blog. I read about it first by reading the RSS feed of Davil Hall's Månhus beta.
Expressen launches poker blog
It was just a matter of time before some medium would add the two major trends blogging and poker together. Expressen now launches a poker blog, written by artist Markoolio. It seems that they announced it a bit too soon though, because the link doesn't work yet.Iranian blog survey
The Iranian News Agency IRNA reports about a survey of 150 blogs carried out by the Iranian Culture Ministry. When will the Swedish Ministry of Education, Research and Culture become interested in blogs (except when they are forced to by the opposition)?
More info at "so this is mass communication".
More info at "so this is mass communication".
Ray Ray rules
Raphael Saadiq is the bomb. He made an excellent performance at Berns in Stockholm last night, which on and off was more rock than R&B. He played most of his best songs except 'Detroit Girl', topping it all with a killer version of 'Get Involved' to finish off the encore.
The fact that he forgot the words to 'Chic Like You' was just charming. Looking forward to next time, Ray Ray.
I must also give 23-year old Swedish soul talent Melo some praise for his show. We will surely hear more from this voice in the near future. Good stuff.
Update: Aftonbladet writes about the concert (but has the wrong photo, the person in the photo is from another concert in another room at Berns last night). More reviews: DN (not online), Norrbottens-Kuriren, SR, SvD.
The fact that he forgot the words to 'Chic Like You' was just charming. Looking forward to next time, Ray Ray.
I must also give 23-year old Swedish soul talent Melo some praise for his show. We will surely hear more from this voice in the near future. Good stuff.
Update: Aftonbladet writes about the concert (but has the wrong photo, the person in the photo is from another concert in another room at Berns last night). More reviews: DN (not online), Norrbottens-Kuriren, SR, SvD.
Who reads this stuff?
Cartoon of the day: Doonesbury on blogging.
Winning bid crashes London 2012 website
Congrats to London for getting the 2012 Olympic Games. I guess I will have to schedule some meetings at our London office around that time...Apparently the Brits were not prepared (enough) to win, because the website has crashed, probably due to an enormous amount of traffic.
Tour de blog
Aftonbladet adds a tour blog to its bouquet of blogs. Artists Darin, Magnus Uggla and Lena Philipsson will write about their upcoming tour through Sweden. To my knowledge it is the first major blog attempt from a well known Swedish artist (?).
Det kom ett mejl från Stig Vig
För ett tag sedan hänvisade jag till det kortlivade bandet Ojj!600 i samband med att min undersökning av bloggare och bloggläsare lockade 600 respondenter. Ojj!600 påstod jag, tog sitt namn från ett rekordlågt gage (600 kr) vid en konsert. Jag är rätt säker på att jag hörde detta på radio när det begav sig i mitten av åttio-talet, men nu 20 år senare har jag alltså blivit upplyst om hur det egentligen gick till eftersom upphovsmannen hittade anteckningen i min blogg.
Igår fick jag nämligen oväntat nog ett mejl från Per "Stig Vig" Odeltorp där han är vänlig nog att berätta om hur bandet fick sitt namn. Ojj!600 kom från ett tärningsspel som heter 10 000 och där man ska få minst 1 000 poäng för att noteras, men oftast stannade man på just 600. Kom sen inte och säg att bloggar inte bidrar till upplysningen i samhället.
Igår fick jag nämligen oväntat nog ett mejl från Per "Stig Vig" Odeltorp där han är vänlig nog att berätta om hur bandet fick sitt namn. Ojj!600 kom från ett tärningsspel som heter 10 000 och där man ska få minst 1 000 poäng för att noteras, men oftast stannade man på just 600. Kom sen inte och säg att bloggar inte bidrar till upplysningen i samhället.
Journalist blogs trump traditional articles in Google
You might think that journalist blogs are just a side-kick to their regular paper or online columns, but Google disagrees. These 13 Swedish journalists might soon be better known for their blogs than for their traditional journalistic achievements. In 11 out of 13 cases, a Google search for their names delivers their blogs as number one.
Andreas Ekström - #1
Lotta Gröning - #1
Cecilia Hagen - #1
Håkan Jacobson - #1
Linna Johansson - #3 (this blog has been up just one week, with the exception of one initial post a month ago)
Helle Klein - #1
Olof Lundh - #1
PM Nilsson - #1
Anders Nunstedt - #1
Linda Skugge - #2 (#1 is her personal webpage)
Per Svensson - #1
Ebba von Sydow - #1
Fredrik Virtanen - #1
It is a remarkable development since most of these journalists have been writing for years, but blogging only for a couple of months, or even weeks, but already blogs play the first violin in their digital repertoire. Now, a few questions arise. First, are the texts they publish on their blogs the kind of journalistic product they want to have as their primary association? Some who question the quality of these blogs would say 'no', although there are blogs on that list that I read with great interest. Second, is there a way to exploit this phenomenon? Of course there is, and opportunities may even be greater for the journalists than for the media.
A well written blog may even lead to a situation where "some newspaper reporters [will become] better known in some circles for their blogs than for their printed work" to quote Tim Porter. He makes a comparison between the music industry and the media industry. He claims there is a shift from 'the music business' to the 'musician business' in that consumers gladly pay 100 bucks for a concert ticket but are reluctant to pay 19 bucks for a CD. He quotes the New Yorker: "In the musician business, the assets that once made the major labels so important - promotion, distribution, shelf space - matter less than the assets that belong to the artists, such as their ability to perform live. The value of songs falls, and the value of seeing an artist sing them rises, because the experience can't really be reproduced."
What if the journalism business is developing into a journalist business, if journalism produces a commodity we don't want to pay for but original writing is worth much more? He continues:
"If news is commodity, then in-depth reporting has value. If routine government coverage offers nothing but stenography, then interpretive reporting has value. If the conventions of traditional journalism produce bland and boring copy, then personality and point of view have value. If newspapers have become disconnected from community, then relationships between writer and reader have value."
Blogs are by nature an excellent channel for building relationships, being personal and interpreting news and events. By exploiting their talents journalists can become thought leaders in their own right. So a question goes out to journalist bloggers - will you seize the opportunity to extend your brand beyond the medium who currently hires you, or are you satisfied with being the journalist who writes about taking the bike to work?
Andreas Ekström - #1
Lotta Gröning - #1
Cecilia Hagen - #1
Håkan Jacobson - #1
Linna Johansson - #3 (this blog has been up just one week, with the exception of one initial post a month ago)
Helle Klein - #1
Olof Lundh - #1
PM Nilsson - #1
Anders Nunstedt - #1
Linda Skugge - #2 (#1 is her personal webpage)
Per Svensson - #1
Ebba von Sydow - #1
Fredrik Virtanen - #1
It is a remarkable development since most of these journalists have been writing for years, but blogging only for a couple of months, or even weeks, but already blogs play the first violin in their digital repertoire. Now, a few questions arise. First, are the texts they publish on their blogs the kind of journalistic product they want to have as their primary association? Some who question the quality of these blogs would say 'no', although there are blogs on that list that I read with great interest. Second, is there a way to exploit this phenomenon? Of course there is, and opportunities may even be greater for the journalists than for the media.
A well written blog may even lead to a situation where "some newspaper reporters [will become] better known in some circles for their blogs than for their printed work" to quote Tim Porter. He makes a comparison between the music industry and the media industry. He claims there is a shift from 'the music business' to the 'musician business' in that consumers gladly pay 100 bucks for a concert ticket but are reluctant to pay 19 bucks for a CD. He quotes the New Yorker: "In the musician business, the assets that once made the major labels so important - promotion, distribution, shelf space - matter less than the assets that belong to the artists, such as their ability to perform live. The value of songs falls, and the value of seeing an artist sing them rises, because the experience can't really be reproduced."
What if the journalism business is developing into a journalist business, if journalism produces a commodity we don't want to pay for but original writing is worth much more? He continues:
"If news is commodity, then in-depth reporting has value. If routine government coverage offers nothing but stenography, then interpretive reporting has value. If the conventions of traditional journalism produce bland and boring copy, then personality and point of view have value. If newspapers have become disconnected from community, then relationships between writer and reader have value."
Blogs are by nature an excellent channel for building relationships, being personal and interpreting news and events. By exploiting their talents journalists can become thought leaders in their own right. So a question goes out to journalist bloggers - will you seize the opportunity to extend your brand beyond the medium who currently hires you, or are you satisfied with being the journalist who writes about taking the bike to work?
Newspapers are betting on participatory journalism
The New York Times published an interesting article (free registration required) yesterday about the News & Record and its new experiment with participatory journalism.
"This feature, part of a planned overhaul of The News & Record's Web site that is to begin next week, is a potent symbol of a transformation taking place across the country, where top-down, voice-of-God journalism is being challenged by what is called participatory journalism, or civic or citizen journalism."Several similar projects are mentioned in the article and I especially reacted to the underlying reasons for taking such initiatives.
"Nearly all newspapers have been troubled by a range of substantially similar worries: the loss of 18-to-34-year-old readers; the loss of trust in conventional news media; and the emergence of technology, especially blogs, that make it easy for ordinary people to barge into the old media's one-way conversation."In my recent survey (pdf) of 600 Swedish bloggers and blog readers I found that 69.4% of all blog readers are between 16 and 35, so the approach to engage in citizen journalism seems logical. It should be an initiative that the target group is interested in.
Words with wings
Blogging reaches new heights. I'm interviewed in the latest issue of Clear Skies, the inflight magazine of Fly Nordic. Mark Comerford is also quoted in the article.Moral shock at Stockholm Spectator
Stockholm Spectator's Michael Moynihan today lashes out at artist Kanye West for having the nerve to both criticize world leaders and living a luxury life sipping Kristal at the same time.
Moynihan writes that during Live 8 "it was left to mumbling rapper Kayne West [sic!] to vent outrage at "the politicians" who "drive around in their Bentleys while Africa starves." Then Moynihan is "shocked" when he reads an article where West complains at not being quite as rich and famous as he would want to be.
Moynihan's reaction might have been well founded if it hadn't been for the fact that West, while certainly living la dolce vita, also reaches out to the less fortunate. He is very active in the black community especially where the youth are concerned, by for example founding the Kanye West Foundation which is "dedicated to combating the dropout problem in the nation's schools with compelling music programs. "Loop Dreams, the first initiative of the Kanye West Foundation, is designed to support the fight to keep instruments in the schools, and to provide opportunities for "at-risk"; students to learn how to write and produce music while simultaneously improving their academic skills."
Maybe it's just a small thing, maybe even too small if your net worth is in triple digits of millions of dollars, but in my book that does give West the right to criticize others who do less. And while this initiative doesn't help the starving millions in Africa (but his appearance at Live 8 might), I bet there are other artists at Live 8 who do even less. But of course, it is difficult to fact check if you can't spell the name of the person you are blasting. This piece of information is on the front page of www.kanyewest.com.
Moynihan writes that during Live 8 "it was left to mumbling rapper Kayne West [sic!] to vent outrage at "the politicians" who "drive around in their Bentleys while Africa starves." Then Moynihan is "shocked" when he reads an article where West complains at not being quite as rich and famous as he would want to be.
Moynihan's reaction might have been well founded if it hadn't been for the fact that West, while certainly living la dolce vita, also reaches out to the less fortunate. He is very active in the black community especially where the youth are concerned, by for example founding the Kanye West Foundation which is "dedicated to combating the dropout problem in the nation's schools with compelling music programs. "Loop Dreams, the first initiative of the Kanye West Foundation, is designed to support the fight to keep instruments in the schools, and to provide opportunities for "at-risk"; students to learn how to write and produce music while simultaneously improving their academic skills."
Maybe it's just a small thing, maybe even too small if your net worth is in triple digits of millions of dollars, but in my book that does give West the right to criticize others who do less. And while this initiative doesn't help the starving millions in Africa (but his appearance at Live 8 might), I bet there are other artists at Live 8 who do even less. But of course, it is difficult to fact check if you can't spell the name of the person you are blasting. This piece of information is on the front page of www.kanyewest.com.
A date with Ray Ray
I didn't think I would be able to make it, but I finally bought tickets for Berns Fusion Festival on Wednesday here in Stockholm, featuring Raphael Saadiq Moodyman and Little Brother. Any other bloggers going to this event?
Spell it with Flickr
Swedish television forbids journalist to blog - again
Journalist Per Gudmundson must have some sort of record for most gagged blogger. His first blog was abandoned because his employer SVT did not find it appropriate for one of its journalists to express political views in a blog on his spare time. Now Zaida Catalán informs us that his second blog, that I reported about yesterday, has been stopped too. He was supposed to have an offical blog at SVT 24 to report from the political event in Almedalen. But according to Catalán, the new blog was vetoed last minute by SVT's Director of Programming Leif Jacobsson. In retrospect, it was interesting that the only person who came up to me to talk after my (and Gudmundson's) blog presentation to the management of SVT was Jacobsson. He told me an Oscar Wilde (I think) quote that went something like "Say it with wine, say it with pearls, but never say it in words" meaning that once you publish something in writing it will always stick with you. In the light of that quote his veto might not be a big surprise. I'm sure this is not the end of this story.
