JRN 4440/FA14

Reading Response: "The Transition to Digital Journalism"

 In this article from UC Berkeley, Paul Grabowicz discusses the rise of blogging as a platform and its impact on the world. In his introduction, Grabowicz says the introduction of blogs into the world "helped define the concept of Web 2.0." I readily agree, as the concept of the Social Media as introduced by blogs in the 2000's has permeated and set the baseline for the rest of the internet as we know it.

Grabowicz mentions the introduction of Blogger in 1999, coincidentally the same platform this blog runs on. He emphasizes the platform's simplicity -- the elimination of complicated HTML formatting reduced the barrier of entry to creating a "site" for yourself. Today, simplicity is the norm, not the innovation, and modern Social Media like Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook are the most easily-accessed online tools on the planet.

Likewise, the simplicity of those platforms means "traditional" blogs are on the decline. Grabowicz notes that the number of teens blogging in today's online landscape has plummeted -- 14% in 2009 compared to 28% in 2006. It's easy to see why -- who would bother with setting up a traditional blog, typing out hundreds of words, proofreading, and publishing the resultant wall of text, when just as much if not more attention can be garnered with a 140-character tweet saying the same thing?

Finally is the matter of Social Media as a news source as viewed by traditional media. According to Grabowicz, traditional media sources see blogs as biased, lacking in standards, and relentlessly parasitizing other news sources. I have little to refute this accusation, other than "Yes, and?" Traditional news sources are hardly innocent of these practices, and in Social Media's case, "parasitical" behavior is encouraged and called "signal boosting." It's simply another way a story gets out and to more people.

In summary, the blog's creation at the turn of the century was the catalyst for a revolution in how news is dispersed. From its rise in the late 90's to its decline and metamorphosis in to modern Social Media in the 2000's, the humble blog has totally reshaped how we discover, consume, and redistribute news.