Update II: A few days after this post, David Permutter e-mailed a response. In fairness, I’ll post an excerpt:
I thank you for your extensive analysis of my short piece on the “blog bust.” I wonder, though, if you are under the impression that I’m anti-blog. I’m anti-hype of all kinds: whether it is for the boxoffice receipts of a Hollywood movie, the fundraising of a prominent Presidential contender, or claims about blogs. The facts are that many statistics bandied about blog usership and ownership are based on questionable criteria and categories. To say that is not an attack on blogs–I don’t think so anyway. I like blogs; I read blogs; I support blogs; I admire bloggers. I just also support truth-in-numbers.
——————————————————————————————————————————
Mass communication professor David Perlmutter asks, “Will blogs go bust?”
Perlmutter is writing a book on political blogs, and I was one of his interviewees. Based on the article, he thinks the blog hype is overblown because there are several challenges to blogs as independent and authentic “new press.” He breaks it down to three main points:
First, are bloggers truly “the people”? Bloggers tend to come from the higher-education and higher-income portion of the population. This is as true in Egypt or Nigeria as it is in the United States. Peasants don’t blog….
Second, astronomical descriptions of blogging numbers fail to account for that fact that many blogs are rarely updated or are orphans. These are blogs posted by people, as a lark, or as an experiment, typically with free and easy programs like Blogger.com. They put up a few posts, get bored, do not get any reaction, or get lots of the wrong kind of reaction and drop out…
Blog numbers are also falsely inflated by fake blogs, a new form of passive spam that I call “clogs.”
First, I’ll tell you what I “get” about the article. You need a computer to blog, and computers cost money. If you’re “poor,” however that’s defined these days, a computer may be a luxury. There are more computer owners among higher-income people than lower. Consequently, it seems correct on the surface that bloggers tend to come from higher-income brackets. But Perlmutter is probably thinking only of big-time and/or political bloggers like the ones he mentioned in the article. I wonder how broadly he conducted his research.
He’s also correct in his second point. It’s so simple and cheap to start a blog that the medium is bound to attract the dilettante, the curious, and the uncommitted. And a “clog” is an ugly thing to behold. This is an example of a clog. It’s filled with keywords and ads designed to lure visitors searching for information on home businesses. Search engines, especially Google, are attracted to blogs because of the links and frequently updated content, and marketers create spam blogs that are nothing more than online junk mail.
Perlmutter’s overall point is, I think, blogs should be independent and authentic; otherwise, the “optimistic model” of blogs as “the feisty new press…ruling the world” is overblown. If certain blogs are going to serve that purpose, I agree, but not all blogs do.
A blog can be whatever the user wants it to be. The independence and authenticity blogs provide are only two of many aspects of blogging, not the defining characteristics, but he seems to think they’re the only characteristics.
Blogs aren’t merely mainstream media gadflies. They’re a vehicle for communicating, and the message is whatever the blogger wants to say. Perlmutter overanalyzes something as simple and organic as a blog. This is a problem that plagues most non-bloggers, especially academics.
He also compares, strangely, today’s enthusiasm for the blog medium with the dot.com hype of the 1990s. But blogs are not businesses in themselves; they are communication tools. Why Perlmutter ignores the obvious analogy between blogs and other communication tools like the telephone or television is a mystery.
Did the telephone or television go bust? No. The technology used to create them improved, as will blogging technology. Blogging platforms inevitably will become more flexible and even more user-friendly, but they won’t “winnow” out like dot.com businesses. Strange ideas you have, professor.
I got a headache trying to pin down the gist of this article. That frequently happens when I read pieces written by non-bloggers trying to figure out blogs. Don’t analyze them, Professor Perlmutter. Just blog.
Related:
- “Manly” Maney Says Blog Novelty Will Wear Off
- Ken Fuson’s Confusion
- Nick Coleman’s Blog Envy
- The NYT may be coming around a little.
Update: Jeff Javis has some catty words for Perlmutter. The Moderate Voice also reacts. The Captain dresses down another blog player-hater.
Good analysis. I agree, I think blogging is similar to message boarding. People create communties around their ideas and the topics that drive them, and people of similar ideas congregate to that blog.
To me, blogging is really similar to talk radio, in that you have personalities that deal with similar topics from their own personal perspective. So to say blogging will go out of style is similar to saying talk radio will go out of style. I just don’t think that will happen.
Comment by Dell Gines — 08.05.05 @ 9:52 am
I agree, too. My awareness of blogs hasn’t changed in the last two years since I started my blog. My understanding, though, has changed significantly. I know more about writing, editing, and voice. I know more about how the medium can educate, offend, confuse, and refine. And I know more about myself.
Your final advice to the professor is perfect.
Comment by Tony — 08.05.05 @ 10:16 am
Blogging is the new main street. We can walk around the blogosphere peeking into the shops of others. Sometimes, we stay and become patrons other times we’re just window shop never intending to “buy” the views of those we read. However, our curiosity will bring us back occassionaly.
And just like main street, it’s here to stay. But over time it will change it’s look and feel to accomodate the lifestyles of those who live there.
Comment by Spunky — 08.05.05 @ 10:17 am
La Shawn, first let me congratulate you on your participation in the blog conference. Secondly Professor Perlmutter first comment regarding bloggers may be correct although about as far sighted as the end of my nose.
I’ve seen such an outpouring of participation by the peasants and the poor in the mainstream press.
Blog on
Lynn F. Markley
Comment by Lynn Markley — 08.05.05 @ 10:24 am
David Perlmutter is clueless.
OF COURSE MORE EDUCATED PEOPLE BLOG - but more educated people are also college professors and journalists.
Do these “educated” people represent “the people”- only if they are not snobs - and listen to “the people”.
Some would consider me “over educated”, but I listen to “the people” - I am on their wavelength. The “anointed” are not.
Comment by Frank Zavisca — 08.05.05 @ 10:49 am
“Don’t analyze them, Professor Perlmutter. Just blog.”
Yep. And as for the “More Educated People Blog”…well…I haven’t even graduated from High School and I have a pretty good amount of people who actually listen to what I have to say! It’s absolutely amazing…
Comment by Agent Tim — 08.05.05 @ 11:24 am
It took me a while before I got into blogging. I started reading a couple and soon found out that there were thousands of blogs on the net. I was always interested in writing but outside of football and poetry, I don’t have a passion to write about anything. Now that I’m blogging, I treat it like a conversation around a water cooler. Whatever comes to mind whether it is sports, politics, movies or relationships. Blogging will be around for a long time because people will always be interested in hearing what other folks have to say. Unlike a message board where there are topics generated by any and everyone, a blog’s topic is limited to whatever the owner chooses to discuss. I visit about 20 different blogs a week but post regularly only on a few. I know I will never get rich and famous with my blog but there are many that will.
Comment by James Manning — 08.05.05 @ 11:48 am
I got my G.E.D. 6 years after dropping out of 12th grade and I make so little money that I get laughed at by fast food workers.
*sigh*
I blog cuz ah stoopit and too broke to be havin’ fun elswear.
Comment by Mark La Roi — 08.05.05 @ 12:27 pm
Anybody can walk into a public library and use their computers, so the idea that owning a computer is necessary is ludicrous. In fact, Instapundit has a formerly homeless guy on his blogroll who did just that.
“Ludicrous” is too strong a word. “Inaccurate” or “not necessarily” are much better. I was thinking of the formerly homeless blogger, but for some reason didn’t convey the sentiment. - Admin
Comment by Omnibus Driver — 08.05.05 @ 12:46 pm
Will Blogs Go Bust?
La Shawn Barber has an interesting post on this subject.
…
Trackback by Crystal's Blog — 08.05.05 @ 1:32 pm
La Shawn Barber, I found your post interesting and I will be tuning in more often.
Pete & Maribel Hernandez
Comment by Maribel Hernandez — 08.05.05 @ 1:48 pm
It’s really funny to me to read that Perlmutter thinks that most bloggers tend to have higher incomes and education. While I know that I’m not representative of the blogosphere, I’d just bet that there are many more in my shoes than he’d reckon - I’m a stay at home mom (homeschooling my daughters) and our income is certainly not high. I did not go to college - but am an avid reader and find I’m learning more in teaching my girls than I ever learned in government schools.
My education has come from the school of life - and generally, I think that makes for a much more well rounded education!
Comment by Kay — 08.05.05 @ 1:58 pm
What I’m Reading
I don’t want to horn in on Glenn Reynolds act, but what the hell. The reality is that I don’t get to read as many blogs as I’d like to, and today I actually took 30 minutes to read some…
Trackback by UNCoRRELATED — 08.05.05 @ 7:28 pm
I don’t know exactly how many people are coming to my blog because I don’t have a counter set up, but I’m getting a little traffic on other sites of mine that are linked from my blog. So I know SOMEBODY’S going there, and I’m still writing posts. The only person linked to my blog at the moment is you, La Shawn, because you volunteered. (Thanks!!) Do you think it’s OK if I bug other people asking them to link to my blog (if I link to theirs)?
I’m a nineteen-year-old homeschooler, and I’m not rich, so I think that professor doesn’t have a clue. How could he possibly know the background of every blogger out there? There are far more indie bloggers than indie radio or newspapers!
Comment by Shayne — 08.05.05 @ 8:30 pm
“First, are bloggers truly “the peopleâ€? Bloggers tend to come from the higher-education and higher-income portion of the population. This is as true in Egypt or Nigeria as it is in the United States. Peasants don’t blog….”
Prof. Perlmutter’s first argument is a common one used to discount homeschoolers and disregard their growing numbers. I think Perlmutter is also confusing intelligence with education. Most of the bloggers I know are little more than modern peasants - large, single-income families - with little or no college education. The good professor really needs to get out more or at least take a closer look at the blogosphere.
Comment by Mrs. Happy Housewife — 08.05.05 @ 10:01 pm
Perlmutter’s three points evoke a yawn and a “so what.”
1) Holders of library cards and people who subscribe to daily newspapers have, in general, on the average, relatively higher educations and incomes. Does this give them any less “authenticity” than others who say, get most of their news from the short-term sound bites of television and radio? I don’t think so. Martin Luther King and his SCLC fit the “non peasant” educated category quite well. Did they fail to be “down” with the black masses of the South becauseof that? So what if bloggers are not “peasants”? How is that significant? Indeed the “peasants” or poor always tend to be less well-informed. This was the case in the non-computer/ non blogging era as well. It is an old pattern that has nothing to do with blogging, so the question arises- “So What?”
2) Blogging as a novelty is hardly a novelty. The same pattern can be observed with a variety of things which cool down over time- from the CB Radio popularity of the 1970s, to the feverish creation of personal websites during the 1990s (you can post only so many pics of the family cat or tell yet another vacation story). Eventually some people get bored and move on. Ditto for new users of the internet and USENET. USENET was a powerful force in the 1990s but its popularity has waned as growing accesibility to content from other easier sources arose. All this is a quite normal pattern and outcome of any new online activity. Things that start out one way, morph over time. Its called change.
3) The existence of “clogs” should really come as no surprise to anyone who has spent a few years online. We saw similar things with bogus keywords on webpages, spam on USENET, spam in email, and today’s “link farms” designed to capitalize on Google’s rankings. The same was true BEFORE the Web- as businesses, political parties, assorted activists, unions, and various non-profits all filled the available media with their own brand of spin and bogus claims. Such patterns are not new. We have all indeed, been there, done that and seen it already. Again one may ask Permutter, so what?
Blogging in and of itself does not have to last in its current form. What is important is the survival of the unique elements of blogging (which are similar in some ways to bulletin boards, personal web pages, etc). These include personal control, easy access, varied content, current updates, less dependence on assorted “experts” and media manipulators, etc. among other things. Blogging will change over time. We icreasingly no longer have to worry about code in layout templates for example. The format may well evolve with the media as broadband access grows- like video blogs or web casts incorporating media such as music, video, graphics and text. The tools will be available for the ordinary person to churn out their own complex, sophiscated media productions as easily as we can churn out typed text today. Who cares if HTML blog templates disappear? As long as those blog elements are preserved- that’s the bottom line.
First, are bloggers truly “the people� Bloggers tend to come from the higher-education and higher-income portion of the population. This is as true in Egypt or Nigeria as it is in the United States. Peasants don’t blog….
Second, astronomical descriptions of blogging numbers fail to account for that fact that many blogs are rarely updated or are orphans. These are blogs posted by people, as a lark, or as an experiment, typically with free and easy programs like Blogger.com. They put up a few posts, get bored, do not get any reaction, or get lots of the wrong kind of reaction and drop out…
Blog numbers are also falsely inflated by fake blogs, a new form of passive spam that I call “clogs.â€
Comment by Enrique Cardova — 08.05.05 @ 10:02 pm
Hmmm. Can’t get the trackback to work.
Oh well, here’s a taste.
I call BS.
I was an unemployed (injured) welder when I started blogging in April 2002. I was a senior maintenance millwright, and then a senior plant maintenance mechanic while blogging. I’m now a welder again. Still blogging. Still no college degree.
Kalroy
Comment by Kalroy — 08.06.05 @ 12:23 am
La Shawn, I think Prof. Perlmutter is just mad that in the blog-world, he can’t give us a failing grade, or throw us out of the class room if we don’t agree with him!
Comment by Tom Bosee — 08.06.05 @ 7:18 am
Given the abysmal state of education today, Perlmutter may have more accurately stated that journalism tends to be overpopulated with higher-indoctrinated (not higher-educated) individuals. The immense appeal of blogs is their egalitarian nature. One is judged on one’s writing and ideas….not one’s degree, sex, or race. Second, the immense array of delectibles offered to the hungry reader is enticing. Thirdly, blogs are not bound by political correctness in the overwhelming percentage that the MSM is…thank God. Being able to respond and read responses is mentally quite stimulating.The sense of community is awesome. And, I quite like not having my values slammed in my face every day, as they are in the liberal paper in Austin. Lastly, blogs are far more relentless about seeking out the truth. I love that.
Comment by jan brauner — 08.06.05 @ 9:45 am
People who can’t afford a computer and internet connection at home can always go to the library. They can sign up for 30-minute sessions, and can do it a few times a day–libraries are open from morning until evening, some from 9 am to 9 pm.
Comment by mj — 08.06.05 @ 9:58 am
Re #19 Jan, exactly! Who knew who was behind the alias Wretchard at Belmont Club? It took several years before he recently stepped out and declared himself to be Richard Fernandez, of Filipino birth and Australian citizenship with a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard — an non-American minority, imagine that! For all most readers could have known, he/she could have been a cat, which was by the way the alias was the name of an imaginary cat.
People came to his site because of the quality of his content and analysis, not his degree and pedigree. Perlmutter is clueless and can only mutter about his kind of elites being bypassed as the arbiter of truth.
Comment by Andy — 08.06.05 @ 12:51 pm
This was a very interesting analysis.
Comment by cynthia — 08.06.05 @ 1:28 pm
Andy;
Exactly back atcha! What is so funny is that the left has expressed concern that blogs are predominated by…..oh my gosh……males. They were actually batting around legislation to ‘make the blogosphere more ‘representative’…..The mere thought that liberals will ruin one of the few areas left in this world where an individual sinks or swims on the quality of their work, makes me shudder in disgust. As far as I am concerned, the blogosphere is the ultimate in ‘equality of opportunity’! Let’s protect it!
Comment by jan brauner — 08.06.05 @ 4:31 pm
“Clogs”, a type of shoe that faded away in the 80’s.
“Clogging”, a type of dance that went out in the 90’s. I blog because it’s better than watching TV. Who knows how long it’ll be around.
Comment by Bullseye — 08.06.05 @ 6:54 pm
I guess I’m missing the good professor’s point as well. Does he actually think he has one?
Comment by RedBeard — 08.06.05 @ 8:14 pm
Speaking of going to one’s local library to blog…I had a rude awakening recently…My internet crashed and I went to my library to blog.There were two stand up locations to ‘compute for a maximum of fifteen minutes,with a waiting time of approximately forty minutes just to log on. Ten feet away there was a section with ten computers, unattended, for ‘new immigrants’ only. There were no lines, no sign-ins, the chairs were beautiful, the entire area was luxurious, yet regular library users were not allowed to access this area. I was trying to access my daughter’s plane reservations and it took me over one hour standing in line, and meanwhile the entire immigrant section was entirely empty. There’s something wrong with this picture……
Comment by jan brauner — 08.07.05 @ 1:42 am
Buying books such as the one the professor is writing and going to college to sit under the professor cost money too and the “poor” often don’t do either. So, should we discount book readers and a college educated people because they don’t truly represent “the people?”
I think I caught a glimpse of something in the professor’s comments. In his fantasy, he likes the “poor and uneducated” because he sees them as more malleable and more willing to listen to his ideas without challenging them. Like so many he’s using the poor to intimidate and discount what he doesn’t like.
I’m willing to bet that blogs have increased the reach of a large number of people with ideas and writing talent. They can now get their ideas out to a much wider audience. I’m thankful we’re not living in the days of the “salons” when only the elite were invited to exchange ideas.
Comment by Evon Bachaus — 08.07.05 @ 9:33 am
Bloggers are the Rich?
La Shawn Barber on August 5th blogs about Professor David Perlmutter’s comments about blogs. It seems his conclusion’s are that bloggers are mostly the rich, summed up by his statement: “Peasants don’t blog. Not yet, anyway.”
Trackback by Conservative Musings — 08.07.05 @ 3:44 pm
I think everyone seems to be overlooking a major reason that working people are less likely to blog. For many working people, it’s all about having the time to blog. Before I started working my summer job, I was always updating, modifying and improving my blogs. So long as I was able to meet my course requirements in college, blogging consumed most of my time.
However, once I went to work, I stopped blogging, almost altogether. Why? Lack of time. Unlike the care free life of a college student, the work world is a whole other animal. Once you find yourself getting up in the wee hours of the morning, and spending all day lond doing gruling, boring tasks at a job you hate, you start coming home around six and seven o’clock just completely drained. You have no extra energy for anything, and everything becomes a struggle.
I arrive home at the end of the day, at which point I shower, eat, meet my requirements for the one class I’m taking over the summer and then crash around 9:30 or 10:00. As soon as my head hits the pillow, it’s 5 am once again and it’s back to work.
Add to that the fact that while I’m at work, my focus is on work. Not reading the Drudge report. Not listening to talk radio. Not reading the papers or watching TV. Not listening to Cubs games. Where I work, I wouldn’t have know about the 9/11 attacks untill the following night. It’s life in a bubble, and hence to no time to blog and nothing to blog about. I do get to carry a lot of sand bags though. Woo hoo.
I can’t wait to go back to college full time in the fall. One more month and counting.
At least I was able to get in one good post on my Cubs blog a while ago. Shockingly, it’s about work.
http://cubbycorner.blogspot.com/2005/07/its-been-while.html
Comment by John — 08.07.05 @ 3:56 pm
Kudos to all those (starting with Frank Z) who pointed out that MORE EDUCATED people are also college professors, journalists, etc. However, I’ve never seen a requirement ‘Must have a BA’ to open a blog. Blogging is utterly egalitarian: if you have access to the internet (not so rare these days, at least in the United States), you can blog. If people like what they read, they’ll comment and keep coming back. If not… Well, nobody’s going to stop you from shouting into the vacuum of cyberspace even if nobody’s listening!
Blogs are nothing more than hi-tech versions of 18th century broadsides, or the soapbox on the corner, or the water cooler, or the local bar: they are places where people can express their opinions.
I guess this bothers people who want society to be a bit more regulated and controlled.
Comment by docjim505 — 08.08.05 @ 6:56 am
It just hit me! All this time, I’ve been viewing myself as a peasant, and now I realize that I am of an elevated status……How do I know this? Cuz Perlmutter told me so…Yeah!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by jan brauner — 08.08.05 @ 11:41 am
LA SHAWN BARBER COMMENTARY: Peasants Don’t Blog
The conservative blogger, on an article arguing that blogs are overrated because of several challenges as an independent and authentic new press: “A blog can be whatever the user wants it to be. The independence and authenticity blogs provide are only…
Trackback by Booker Rising — 08.08.05 @ 1:57 pm
Despite the soaring numbers in the blog scene, I find that the numbers of people actually BLOGGING (posting at least once a week) on topics of general interest is relatively stable. It ramps up when there is a “hot-button” issue or an impending election, but drops down again after. For every blogger starting up, another one burns out and quits, at least temporarily.
Comment by Linda F — 10.30.05 @ 8:11 pm