The Nature of Medium on the Value of Words

In the Thursday, August 21, 2008 edition of The Globe and Mail, Christie Blatchford commented on a statement by Montreal sportswriter Micheal Farber, "I have only a finite number of words in me." She concluded, "We all have a limited number of things to say, informed opinions, funny lines, quirky observations. We have only so many words in us. Do we really want to spend them on something so ephemeral as a blog?" She devotes much of her article arguing that the failure of blogs is largely due to the lack of editing - not having someone else who "had the good sense to put on the brakes." She explains, "It is not true that anyone can write...It is not true that anyone can edit themselves and sort wheat from chaff." In essense, for her, blogging is not journalism. In journalism, the writer is not entertaining the immediate response of comments that often follows in a blog. Journalism is not aimed at speedy immediacy, not a virtual conversation - rather it is more of a "carefully constructed dialogue". Perhaps the context underlying her article, the Bejing Olympics, has created an unnecessary tension between these two different styles of writing. It may be that the distinction that has been made may parallel the difference between the styles of a journalist and a novelist, or between a novelist and a historian. To say that one is more "ephemeral" than the other surely is highly subjective. Anyone who has listened to the creativity of freestyling rap would be hard pressed to dismiss it as ephemeral compared to written poetry.

Perhaps some bloggers put little thought into what they say, thus abusing the medium. But unlike reading an inflammatory editorial, to which one's only response is to either hope that a letter to the editor is published later, blogging invites comments and can create an intelligent conference that (in sifting wheat and chaff) considers more than a journalist would be able to present. And though an incredibly small number of people ever rise to the profession of journalism, blogging invites skillful writing from some excellent communicators who might otherwise not be heard.

Blogging like any other form of creative expression, has with its incredible opportunities for reaching many people, also a responsibility to have value, to communicate meaningfully and with carefully considered thought, and to recognize the importance of interactive feedback to the communication process.