"They were like two ships passing in the night." This is a common phrase used to say, "They were going in two totally opposite directions, and they really didn't even SEE the point the other was making!"
The New York Times is a force to be reckoned with. Functioning as both a printed paper and an online medium, it delivers the news in a powerful, moment to moment, intriguing way. The journalists know how to best capture and maintain attention, something many papers could care less about. It's extremely easily accessible, and it seems to set the baseline for delivery. Covering both massive, over-arching topics that impact the world and the smaller, gossipy news that everyone WANTS to read, it is one of the biggest powers in the press sphere today.
However, blogs are almost equally powerful, but in a different capacity. The New York Times delivers the news with a slightly liberal, factual bent, but the blogs interpret it for us. I'm reading CurrentNews and HotAir. HotAir has a HUGE following. It's got a conservative bent, and it almost always touches the subjects that the Times does. It is, however, very satirical, yet informative. It is appealing to audience of a different kind, yet it delivers the same news. CurrentNews is a bit of a different subject. . . . I didn't really like it when I began to read it, and I don't like it now. It covers petty subjects that I don't really care about. . . . . but it occasionally touches the topics the Times cares about. In this instance, the blogs and the Times are NOT like two ships passing in the night. . . . more of a ship communicating with another one.
The Times provides the baseline for topics in the sphere, more or less. If it matters, the Times is going to at least mention it. The blogs take the information, process it, and spit it back at us, and we, the readers, get a chance to digest it, and respond via comments. Blogging provides us with a way to interact with the news, which follows Jarvis' model of the press. So, the Times and blogging function side by side in the press sphere in somewhat of a cycle. The Times delivers the news, or the big news happens, which the Times will comment on, and the blogs re-deliver it. The blogs really can't act until the actual news is released, which puts them slightly lower in the sphere than the actual givers of news . . . . whoever that may be. *slight grin* News can start in any place, and progress to anything. . . . . so who really knows where the waters begin or end?
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I really enjoyed your quote, "They were like two ships passing in the night." I have never heard that before. The way you tied your closing line: "...who really knows where the waters begin or end." is a nice touch and a great metaphor to add texture to your point. I agree that the newspaper is almost a baseline for news. It seems like people generally compare news sources to the New York Times. At teh same time, the circulation of ideas is tricky to generalize. It seems like different genres of news start in different places. I think political and international issues tend to begin with newspapers, while social or 'gossip-like' news often begins online and only gets mention in the newspaper when it gains enough attention online.
ReplyDeleteOoo, that is a really good point. (The newspaper to online vs. online to newspaper cycle). Thanks for bringing that up. . . . *wry grin* It seems as if EVERYTHING is really hard to generalize, and especially now-a-days. There's RL, and then there's OL. The two world are radically different.
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