2/4/09

R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

Daryl brought my attention to a post by Don Mills Diva who has had her thoughts on blogging, 'blog-napped' by the The Times Online without her permission. The article is called 'Danger Online: Perils of revealing every intimate moment' and is an interesting read for all of us with blogs, Facebook, My Space etc in our lives.

If you're interested then go read it and then visit Don Mills Diva and hear her viewpoint. But the gist is that blogs are basically ruining good journalism and writing, and the more salacious the stuff we reveal, the greater our readership. They make it sound like we're 'ALL' in this endless spiral of selling our private lives (or families) to the devil, to gain a greater readership!

I don't agree with this; I don't write about my family much, don't have kids so no danger there and the cats, well they haven't objected yet. Plus my blog is more of a commentary on life 'here' vs the UK, and then ideas that I pull out of thin air, or general stuff like reviews, my pictures and my thoughts on everyday stuff! I really don't think I'm a sensationalist blogger, I have plenty of readers and am not at all tempted to become a virtual 'peep show' for more comments!

I have posted the cute button up top on my sidebar, to show support for Don Mills Diva's campaign for some respect for bloggers.

9 comments:

Don Mills Diva said...

Thanks for your support!

Mmm said...

I do agree that the more sexual one's blog the more readers, or if one's picture is of some kock out woman. If I wanted to, I know how to increase my readership but I'm not doing that. too many readers makes it to o hard to keep up anyway.

I love your blog. It is filled with great tidbits and you write so wittily anyway.

As for protecting one's younger children--i do that. i don't give out their names or many details about ages, etc. As much as I'd love to brag on them or my wife i usually leave it out. I might about my hubs as he'd be a guy and their safer but hey, i''m the hubs here! :)

MikeH said...

As with any media, you need to use your common sense. News readers don't advertise where they live or talk specifics about their family. I make no secret of where I live but, so far, no stalkers ;) On the other hand, I don't talk about things best kept to myself.

Anonymous said...

Interesting reading. I do think Don Mills Diva is right in asking for respect for bloggers.

Some do blog in a very sensational manner - just like The Sun that shows half naked girls in order to increase readership - in order to get more readers. That's up to them.

I imagine that most of us write blogs for other reasons. I would never ever post a picture of my children on my blog. I go by the guidelines - only post stuff that you would think was OK for your kids (or family) to read.

As for the claim that blogging is somehow making journalism less good - that's ridiculous! In fact, some bloggers are better investigative journalists than the journalists themselves. Just take a look at Baghdad's Burning a few years ago.

There is bad writing out there - but there is also a lot of good stuff too.

Expat mum said...

OO must go and look. I'm sorry, but I already feel that I have little sympathy for the journalists in this case. About time they had some competition. Some of them write like five year olds anyway.

Troy said...

It shows the power of blogs that I, here in Suffolk England, only became aware of this interesting article in the "London" Times newspaper by reading about it on a blog written in Oklahoma.
Blogging is power to the "little people" of the world.

Anglophile Football Fanatic said...

I read her post the other day & I agree that is was pretty sad the journalist behaved that way.

The Factory said...

Fear of the power of the net, nothing more. Viva blogging.

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

It is a very good article. Some folks put a lot of very personal details in them.