Excuse Me While I Rock Some EVDO
Congrats to Lock for getting profiled in BusinessWeek. Curbed is a great blog if you're into New York real estate news which many people are and he's an expert on the topic. But (you knew there was gonna be a but, one the size of the Brooklyn Navy Yard) the reporter, Jessi Hempel, misses major points (if not THE biggest) about the role blogs like Curbed and others play in the media landscape.
After making the point that his tidbits often "rankle realtors" who he never attempts to contact for comment, Jessi writes: "But disregard for traditional media mores is in keeping with bloggers' craft. Steele never claimed to adhere to the standards of old-world journalism. Rather, he bills himself as a scavenger. He culls through 150 other blogs and dozens of readers' tips daily to update his blog, posting photos, rants, and queries. The onus is on readers to shape the conversation by sending him tips, notes, and responses."
I think she's got her head up her onus. Something big and obvious is missing from that virtual scavenger hunt list and she never addresses it (and you can't assume it's a given for the BusinessWeek audience) which is why I'm making a big deal out of it. It's only the ENTIRE point of topic-specific blogs and what really shapes their conversation. They are news aggregators wholly dependent on traditional media whose mores they so proudly disregard. There is no reporting or fact-checking to be done and the standards of "old-world journalism" don't apply because this isn't journalism. Ninety percent of Curbed's posts (and this goes for all of Gawker Media, Weblogs Inc, and other similar blog models) are based on stories culled from mainstream media sources. (Yeah, I fact-checked that.) To portray Lock or most of these other bloggers as "insiders" is ridiculous. In fact, the big draw is that they are outsiders who can smartly (or at least humorously) comment on the facts reported by the MSM.
The old saying, "facts cost money, opinions are free" still applies but blogs have transformed that simple dichotomy into something slightly more complex where there's also a premium on aggregating someone else's facts and giving an opinion on them. Lock is a real estate "know-it-all" because he's a read-it-all. Who has the time (or desire) to read all the real estate going-ons in the news and all the listings available on realtor websites? Lock created an invaluable service by doing just that and being an intelligent filter, picking only the important stories and listings to comment on. THAT is what creates the narrative and "shapes the conversation."
I know I know, this is Blogging 101. It's all been said years ago which is why I'm surprised the writer misses the whole point. Lock's a genius, but she doesn't state the actual reasons why.
After making the point that his tidbits often "rankle realtors" who he never attempts to contact for comment, Jessi writes: "But disregard for traditional media mores is in keeping with bloggers' craft. Steele never claimed to adhere to the standards of old-world journalism. Rather, he bills himself as a scavenger. He culls through 150 other blogs and dozens of readers' tips daily to update his blog, posting photos, rants, and queries. The onus is on readers to shape the conversation by sending him tips, notes, and responses."
I think she's got her head up her onus. Something big and obvious is missing from that virtual scavenger hunt list and she never addresses it (and you can't assume it's a given for the BusinessWeek audience) which is why I'm making a big deal out of it. It's only the ENTIRE point of topic-specific blogs and what really shapes their conversation. They are news aggregators wholly dependent on traditional media whose mores they so proudly disregard. There is no reporting or fact-checking to be done and the standards of "old-world journalism" don't apply because this isn't journalism. Ninety percent of Curbed's posts (and this goes for all of Gawker Media, Weblogs Inc, and other similar blog models) are based on stories culled from mainstream media sources. (Yeah, I fact-checked that.) To portray Lock or most of these other bloggers as "insiders" is ridiculous. In fact, the big draw is that they are outsiders who can smartly (or at least humorously) comment on the facts reported by the MSM.
The old saying, "facts cost money, opinions are free" still applies but blogs have transformed that simple dichotomy into something slightly more complex where there's also a premium on aggregating someone else's facts and giving an opinion on them. Lock is a real estate "know-it-all" because he's a read-it-all. Who has the time (or desire) to read all the real estate going-ons in the news and all the listings available on realtor websites? Lock created an invaluable service by doing just that and being an intelligent filter, picking only the important stories and listings to comment on. THAT is what creates the narrative and "shapes the conversation."
I know I know, this is Blogging 101. It's all been said years ago which is why I'm surprised the writer misses the whole point. Lock's a genius, but she doesn't state the actual reasons why.
