Hello Alexander,
Am 04.09.2010 20:23, schrieb Alexander Hellemans:
> On Sat, 04 Sep 2010 09:51 +0100, "Stephan Matthiesen"
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> As you also point out, the blogosphere now takes over some of the
>> societal aspects of journalism, and perhaps it is much better placed to
>> do this exactly because blogs are not driven by money, but by some
>> individuals or groups who want to share what they think. A much more
>> democratic approach than the classical media!
>>
>>
> I think the problem with this is that even less people (the general
> public) will be exposed to science. The majority of people find science
> boring and will never look for science blogs. But a science article in
> a newspaper (especially print) might catch their attention, and some
> will read them.
Yes, I agree. Sorry if this wasn't clear, I wasn't promoting blog
science as an alternative to science journalism. This was meant as a
descriptive observation, as it seems to me that the blogosphere has
developed because many people feel that traditional media leave
important gaps.
Having said that, there are many more reasons to be critical of blogs
and social media. Besides quality issues, there definitely is the strong
echo chamber effect that you point out. On the other hand, the
traditional media also suffer from the echo effect, perhaps increasingly
so.
It is my impression that many observers see a need for the media to
adapt if they want to survive, and in Germany there is a much more open
discussion around this issue than seems to be the case in Britain. I see
quite good arguments for these two points:
- traditional media have to go for quality of they want to compete
against the blogosphere and social internet media.
- readers have to develop a new type of media literacy to minimise the
echo chamber effect.
Again, this is a much more complex issue, unfortunately a bit more
complicated than I have time for at the moment.
Cheers
Stephan
--
Stephan Matthiesen
http://www.stephan-matthiesen.de
Neu auf www.science-texts.de: Oben und unten - Muster des Monats 9/2010
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