Blogs vs. Traditional Media

I Want Media does a fine job summarizing the latest in various media developments. I subscribe to their headline e-mail service and wind up using their links every day. The summary today included a link to a BBC news story entitled TV and Papers Trusted Over Blogs. The headline also linked to another article on Advertising Age which basically said that most people still don’t know what a blog is. So is it really surprising that blogs aren’t regarded as being all that trustworthy?

Like anything else, each individual blog need to earn the trust and respect of the public. Just as there are plenty of newspapers/magazines with questionable reputations, there will also always be plenty of blogs you simply can’t trust. Over time, however, as people grow more accustomed to getting information via blogs, certain bloggers and aggregators will build solid, trustworthy reputations.

On a related note, I had lunch with a local businessman today and he noted how most people, even techies, still tend to look at blogs as a one-way conversation. No matter how controversial the post, only a very small percentage of readers tend to comment on it. I see this on many of the blogs I read as well. In fact, I have to admit that I’m guilty of reading and running as much as the next guy. It’s often hard to take the time to add to the discussion, especially when you’re trying to read through dozens of new blog posts in one sitting.