Five myths about blogs
Jason Fry / SportsJournalism.org
Blogs have served as springboards for sportswriters working outside traditional channels, bringing more competition for fans’ attention. They’ve also provided new outlets for established writers, giving them a broader audience and a higher profile. Their proliferation raises questions about fairness, access and the very definition of a sportswriter.
I find the ongoing conversation about blogs and sportswriting fascinating and don’t mind when it gets raucous. But to keep it well-informed, let’s jettison five myths and misunderstandings about blogs:
Blogs are all about speed.
Yes, publishing to the Web is blindingly fast. But what’s fast is the process by which words are moved from the writer’s screen to the reader’s — the chugging presses and rolling trucks of the newspaper world can’t possibly keep up with electrons. That other process — the writing process — is much the same, a subconscious shifting and weighing of ideas that hopefully culminates in a flurry of prose.
If anything, Web publishing’s speed lets Web writers take their time. Dan Steinberg, the ace voice of the Washington Post’s D.C. Sports Blog, recalls that his recap of the New York Giants’ victory in Super Bowl XLII was due literally five minutes after the game ended. “There is a reckless speed in such deadline work that I never, ever, ever have encountered in blogging,” he writes, adding: “My blog posts might be juvenile, obnoxious and just plain dumb, but they’re almost always more carefully constructed and edited than that particular A1 Washington Post story.”
Blogs are all about dishonesty and cruelty.
Every time I think we’re done talking about this one it pops up again, usually with the tired “mother’s basement” cliché riding shotgun. (At this point honesty compels me to admit I’m typing this in my basement office. But Mom doesn’t pay the mortgage.)
Blogging is ruthlessly democratic, and audiences don’t stick with blogs that prove consistently dishonest or incompetent. Leaving aside the dank waters of political commentary, I defy you to show me a blog that habitually deals in dishonesty and cruelty and has any kind of audience and impact.
