Horst Prillinger: "'Are You Serious?' - the potential and the reality of weblogs as mass media, and why they matter"

Is serious about taking the non serious side of blogging seriously.

e.g. his personal blog has a guest blogger - a stuffed moose :-) !

Weblogging is not journalism necessarily but it could be.

Duty of Care for journalists: -first hand research -multiple sources -different perspectives -verify sources -editorial process -fact versus opinion

Blogs on the other hand

second hand data
one source
one perspective
no verification (combined with RSS ‘snowball effect’ makes blogs a great rumour mill)
instant publishing (my opinion that instant publishing is needed because you need the immediate first reaction AND it’s also good to have the considered, reflective opinion later)
mix of fact and opinion (my opinion is that at least blogs are upfront about it unlike newspapers which have more opinion than they state up front)

Weblog = direct access point/connection point for new sources

Blogs not being journalism is a good thing but still a mass media revolution

We love them because they are different.

What is news? What should it become?

Still hierarchical - others make decisions

Media content traditionally is about those who make decisions

Media covers “important” rather than ordinary

Focused on political and social “elites”

Internet is more democratic (potentially)

Undemocratic access - not everybody has Internet access but a lot more do.

But that’s still easier than starting your own TV station.

Weblogs make it even easier.

The power to publish.

Moving from news that is relevant to the world to news that is relevant to me.

People are looking for media content that has emotional involvement

Looking for Gossip.

Content doesn’t have to make sense.

Weblogs aren’t supposed to be about the truth

One person’s point of view (distorted point of view but that’s not a bad thing)

Weblogs are a mosaic of everyday life. (Roland’s note- cool slogan)

Are you serious about expressing yourself?