If It Involves A Blog, It Must Be New!

from the buzzwords-make-good-headlines dept

How might one spice up a seemingly banal story about a research institute inviting comment from the public? Or how about a story about the routine, if not mundane, leaking of closed courtroom activity? Why, just pepper them with a buzzword, that's how! This time, the magic word is "blog." The first aforementioned example comes from England, where a BBC headline trumpets "Blog calls for 'digital UK' ideas", as if a blog is a sentient being capable of putting out such a request. In actuality, a British think tank is soliciting input on how technology can improve people's lives. Any bureaucratic entity seeking public commentary should be applauded, though it's certainly been done before, electronically and otherwise. The second example involves a Minnesota man publishing otherwise-unpublished court proceedings through his blog ("U.S. blogger thwarts Canadian gag order"). The ostensible big news: he's a blogger, and because Canadian law forbids mainstream media from publishing the material, the situation dredges up the overblown journalism vs. blogging debate. Seems like another case, or two, of confusing the technology medium with the activity behind it.