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Are Traditional Magazines less biased than blogs?
Posted by blogworld • 5/15/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Tags: blogging bias, mike arrington, wired
So not sure if you are aware of the latest drama involving TechCrunch publisher Mike Arrington and Wired Magazine. Short story a wired blogger wondered if the recent deal between TechCrunch and the Washington Post would reflect poorly on the WaPo's journalistic standards.
That got Mike Pissed!
Just about every mainstream media outlet at one time or another have repeated the mantra that the advantage traditional media has over blogs is they have ethical and professional standards and blogs do not.
That got me to thinking and I had to post about it. I figured since there are a few hundred thousand bloggers here you might be interested in weighing in.
Shameless linkage here: tinyurl.com/5ffruc
User Comments
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Potential bias is only one aspect of the issue. Print journals and magazines usually go through a much more rigorous editorial process. I mean, who do I have to get approval from in order to publish something on my blog? Nobody, so I can be as loopy as I please. Of course, some print publications have pretty lame editorial oversight too, but that's a different issue. -
I think of it as the pyramid of credibility or percieved credibility. Some blogs have tremendous influince and many print publications have folded in months. But in the natural scheme of things blogs would have to fall on the bottom of the hiarchy. -
You can't be sure that a magazine is unbiased, 'cause it is always people with opinions and experiences who write.
However, journalistic speaking it is easier for a magazine to be less biased then a blog-writer. But that is not saying a blog can't be as unbiased as a magazine. It just doesn't seem the norm, because blogs are much more personal then a magazine. -
And who says a magazine has to be unbiased? In fact many magazines define rather than report and that makes them biased.
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Right. The issue isn't really bias. It's more about quality and reliability.
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which gets back to the concept of the credibility pyramid.
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Grrr server ate my post (. Will try again later.
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No such thing as "unbiased" from either source. -
I don't read tech stuff but I imagine anyone has the right "wonder" anything, even aloud in a blog. -
lack of editors is not proof of bias. Everyone is bias. Your life experience shades your view of every event. Traditional media, and paid bloggers also have to deal with the conflict of accepting advertising dollars from people you may have to be critical of.
That doesn't mean good journalists or good bloggers can't over come it.-
@blogworld. Amen to the first half - however unsure whether anyone can genuinely overcome a lifetimes experience. An honourable aspiration and some journalists come close, but we would not be human beings if we were able to be 100% objective. Discuss.....
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