A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by freelancer Jeremy Warren for, as it turns out, a well done* feature article in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on the influence of bloggers on Canadian media. Rounding out the piece is Colby Cosh, a good choice, as he’s one of those rare birds who holds journalistic and blogging credentials in equal measure.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the timing is serendipitous. The Ottawa Citizen credited SDA as a source today (in a piece on Marc Emery), underscoring the Star Phoenix article arguing that blogs are gaining a growing influence in Canadian media.
That influence is still well behind that of the powerful US blogosphere, but the gap has unquestionably narrowed in recent months. While we are light years from being embraced, the once nearly universal derision of mainstream journalism seems slowly resigning itself to a grudging acceptance that the voice of the unedited citizen may deserve a place in the media conversation.
Where is it going? Anyone’s guess, I suppose, but if I were to venture one – I can see the citizen-professional dynamic in journalism maturing into a formal and stable symbiosis, with established, mainstream blogs being cited in the media as a matter of course, while they in turn continue to be fed by the more dynamic network of smaller, unconstrained writers lower in the chain.
There is still the possibility that blogging may yet go the way of the CB radio, as is often mentioned, however, one thing is certain – “citizen journalism” is here to stay.
Blogs are often portrayed as a phenomenon of internet technology. They are not. Blogs are an technological expression of that fundamental aspect of human nature – the desire for one’s voice to be heard. Media consumers, having finally found our “letter without an editor”, aren’t likely to discard this medium unless and until something more powerful stands ready to take its place – and that fact alone should serve as warning to those in formal media that you ignore these unedited, “imperfect” voices at your peril.
*There are a couple of minor errors from my portion of the interview, but I’m not going to diminish a job well done by correcting them here.
Congrats, Kate. Saw it on Nealenews this morning.
Yeah, so did I. Ironic, almost. I don’t get the SP, but I suppose I should by this weekend’s copy…
on the influence of bloggers on Canadian media.
Shouldn’t that read, “on the influence of conservative bloggers on the Canadian media”? It’s funny how all these articles on bloggers in Canada rarely seem to discover the left half of it. I guess this is just another example of that liberal media bias.
Robert McClelland: Maybe Rabble-Rousers are not worth reporting and even the liberal media are embarrassed by them. Though Dawg’s Blawg (aka “The Tasmanian Devil/Wolf” or “Monotreme Madness”) isn’t half bad.
http://drdawgsblawg.blogspot.com/
Mark
Ottawa
Maybe the Liberal media bias niche is adequately filled already by, say, the CBC.
There’s less need for leftwing media to note leftwing blogs because it’s business as usual.
Leftwing blogs are “dog bites man”, to a leftwing press. And they’d never want to report the more interesting rants.
A parallel example, have you heard any MSM reports on Cindy Sheehan’s “freedom fighter” comment? These are the people who killed her son that she’s praising.
One day, we can look back on all this and say, “I remember her when”….
Good stuff, Kate!
One has only to read journalists’ and broadcasters’ guidelines, (in their own “Code of Ethics and Principles”), to determine whether the ideal for neutrality is working.
The reporting of news has moved more and more to commentary.
Note this guideline in their website:
“Note: There is a tradition in Canada of media organizations that support and advocate particular ideologies and causes. These ideologies and causes should be transparent to the readers, listeners or viewers. Journalists for these organizations sometimes choose to be advocates or are hired to be advocates and this too, should be transparent.
In our role as fair and impartial journalists, we must be free to comment on the activities of any publicly elected body or special interest organization….
We lose our credibility as fair observers if we write opinion pieces about subjects that we also cover as reporters….
Editorial boards and columnists or commentators endorse political candidates or political causes. Reporters do not.”
~~~~
The public has found out it is not only productive to participate, it can yield some balance, a different perspective that can be taken seriously, or cast aside by the decision-makers, at their perile perhaps.
~~~~
Links to ethics guidelines for broadcasters and journalists:
http://www.cbsc.ca/english/codes/cabethics/ethics.htm
http://www.caj.ca/principles/principles-statement-2002.htm
your comment about CTV news being all about feelings during the London bombings is spot on… it’s been an aggravating trend in MSM.. see the soldiers going to war or peacekeeping and the sad wives… see how someone grieves over a death… its emotional exploitation and worse than tabloid journalism. I think it’s part of the cause of the pu**ification of Canada as well. I long for a canadian news channel that’s a little more to the point like the BBC (?) but I would also love to see how you would construst i.e. a CTV newscast yourself, Kate … or a Christopher Hitchens-type perhaps if you’re too busy for it 🙂
Congrats on the SP article and the much deserved exposure Kate.
I love it when the MSM gets hostile over the Blogesphere….shows their contempt for competition with their arrogant little single minded clique’. If your get flack from them, you’re over the target….good show Kate.
Kate Rules! (But hey- we already knew that.)
What I think is important about blogs, and especially in Canada, is that they are, above all, a democratic act. They are by the people, for the people, about the people.
What has happened in Canada over the past 40 years, is the loss of democracy, and the development of an entrenched unelected governing clique, an upper level of governance that isolates itself completely from the electorate. This upper level is completely disinterested in and alienated from the electorate. All it wants from them, and it will manipulate them into this goal, is election to the House. After that – the people are forgotten for the next four/five years.
This level controls the country: the judges, the bureaucracy, the economy, the MSM – and we are used to them lecturing us, informing us ‘what to think’; we are used to them telling us how to vote, who to accept/reject; we are used to their anti-Americanism, to their sophistry..etc.
Now, with blogs – we can talk among ourselves. We have a voice – and it’s a fast voice. It’s self-correcting; if one of us makes a factual error, it’s immediately corrected. The MSM and the Political Elite will never correct any errors. We do; we watch ourselves. We also have access to a great source of information – the internet – and we don’t need this Upper Level and the MSM to tell us what’s what in the world.
Blogs have arisen out of a need – a need for the people to have power over their lives. In Canada, that includes power to govern themselves. The Liberals have set up an oligarchy and almost destroyed democracy in Canada. The question now, is – are blogs powerful enough to Take Back Democracy in Canada?
I’ll say one thing for sure – the Liberals are very aware of these blogs…both Kate’s wonderful SDA and the Shotgun…
Well done, Kate. Allow me to add my kudos.
ET, you have a point about the Libs and their love-hate relationship with SDA, the Shotgun etc. (“love-hate” might be a bit generous, methinks). Are blogs powerful enough to get Canada back on democratic footing? I don’t know… I guess we’ll find out next federal election, won’t we?
I think blogs are not only changing the political landscape but news in general. I think blogs will become a natural part of the new, online news media going forward.
The big thing blogs offer the reader is inclusion. Readers can reply and have their comments noted by anyone who is following a particular blog. How empowering is that I ask you? Blogs facilitate wonderful dialog and discussion which the MSM simply cannot match. And blogs police themselves. If I say something that is not factual someone will correct me. Blogs are a community in much the same way that eBay is, where sellers and buyers police themselves. Blogs are changing the way many of us get information and news. I regularly follow scientific and research blogs, by some of the best researchers and scientists in the world. Same with news and just about everything else.
Blogs are changing the world because they are an extension of the Internet, a vehicle we can all use and become part of. The Internet will, in my opinion, usher mankind into it’s next level of consciousness and accomplishment. It is already happening.
I rarely watch TV news anymore, unless I want to watch something as it happens, which in my opinion is the only thing that CNN is good for. I have not read a printed newspaper for at least ten years. If I want to read about something in any part of the world I go there, online, and read what those involved are saying. I get both sides of any story this way. This forces me to make up my mind, which may not be a good thing as some might say, but it’s my mind, not someone else’s.
And think of how many old growth forest we could have in 50 years if everyone stopped buying newspapers. Something to do for all our children and their children.
Kate’s blog is one of the best. It will become part of the new media going forward. I sometimes wonder what Kate would be doing though, if this hadn’t ambushed her on the way to feed her puppies. Kate?
Funny how life gets in the way sometimes. But when it does you can always count on the good people to get involved. The way I see it anyway.
Well done, Kate. I’m glad you are getting the recognition you deserve, but remember, it’s all downhill since Mark Steyn said you were one of his favorite blogs.
We have to be careful with all of this well-deserved flattery for SDA… hopefully we don’t make K too aware of her own greatness to the point where she pulls a Chapelle or something. Please nobody offer her 50 million dollars …and I feel that we should try to keep the breathless adulation for SDA more discrete for the sake of humanity. i.e. I suggest “not bad” instead of “friggin bloody brilliant”… etc…
I would thin Kate should be more…
[lengthy, off topic comment deleted]
“It’s funny how all these articles on bloggers in Canada rarely seem to discover the left half of it. I guess this is just another example of that liberal media bias.”
They probably saw your ‘F— the Jews’ post and decided that Kate would be a safer interview subject. There are still some things that the more responsible members of the left won’t say.
Congratulations Kate from down south. Read the article via Nealenews and was impressed that it was actually a fair piece. Pity though, they didn’t have a picture of Kate.
Unfortunately, I also see in the comments that pothead Chris bennett decided to get into an extremely long winded rant. Sigh, it takes all kind I guess.
Rube whinged: “It’s funny how all these articles on bloggers in Canada rarely seem to discover the left half of it. I guess this is just another example of that liberal media bias.”
Summary: Once upon a time one (1) righty blogger was profiled in one (1) nonhostile newspaper article in…errr…something called the “Star” “Phoenix” by two freelance guys, not in The Globe or The Star.
Therefore there is no liberal media bias.”
And it’s that kind of insightfulness and well-reasoned debate which gives Rube and The Left it’s well-deserved reputation for forthrightness and insightful analysis.
The article was so good my spidey senses started tingling: “Hmmmm…insightful MSM article…something is wrong here…oh I see: it’s written by two freelance guys in a nonToronto newspaper…OK, it makes sense now…I hope they blog.”
2 comments:
Firstly, Chris bennett, having read your long winded completely off topic post, it makes me pleased to say that it still leaves me completely unconvinced. Too bad, a wasted effort.
Secondly, a quote from the star Phoenix: “turning everyday citizens into popular online personalities.” Yuck. Would anyone really want that?
Heads up – Calgary Grit has closed the first poll & started a “second chance” one – so everyone needs to go vote for Joe AGAIN. (I suspect he may have given his email buddies a heads up and they are hoping to get Trudeau into the second round. Typical Liberal – I don’t like the way you voted, so here, try again, and let’s not tell anyone …).
You need to go here:
http://calgarygrit.blogspot.com/2005/08/second-vote.html
Oh shoot, curse me for forgetting, but well done Kate. Top drawer! I tell all my friends about this blog, even the lefties, it’s great!
First, I’ll add my felicitations here. Kate, take an e-bow. I think you’re one of a very few pioneers in serious blogging. I see a difference definitely starting to be made.
Now to some comments by others above:
Candace asked: “Are blogs powerful enough to get Canada back on democratic footing?”
I believe that anything that gives “more power to the people” in the ever-increasing way I’m witnessing wrt the blogosphere, with strong, effective leaders such as Kate, will definitely have a growing impact on democracy. I see the MSM being increasingly ignored and forced to acknowledge the increasing worth of serious current-event blogs run by serious people who genuinely care. I’m hoping for a watershed event or events during this election campaign into which we already effectively are. Happened with Rathergate. What’s in store for Canada now? The imagination runs wild.
[o/t deleted]
maybe not so sneaky – if you go to the OLD survey, there is a link to the new one. Apologies to CalgaryGrit for besmirching him.
Thanks for the heads up on that one, Candace! Done. (Joe has a nice lead at 55%)
Congratulations on the story, saw it today and visited because of it. I blog out of Saskatoon for the last few months, enjoying every minute of it. Be stopping by frequently now!
Chris bennett said, “People should check out our forums…”
Sorry Chris, but to use your own terminology, you’re just too boring for me to bother.
And sorry folks, I won’t egg him on anymore, I promise.
xoxoxox
OK. Speaking of short attention spans.. there’s a whole post just down the page on Marc Emery. Now, please mosey on down there where everyone can ignore you in peace. Keep the profanity under control and just let your thoughts go….
I can afford the bandwidth.
This thread is on media and blogging.
And sucking up.
Unfortunately Kate, the popularity of your blog causes various types (I like Jeff’s term of “shallow idealogues”) to attempt to stand on your blog in a manner not dissimilar to someone like Cindy Sheehan using the corpse of her son (and other fallen soldiers) as her pulpit.
Your comment on hitch hiking onto other blogs in the Star Phoenix is an excellent one. Glad you made your choice, regardless of bumps and lumps.
Last warning, folks – there’s an Emery thread below for your commenting enjoyment. Keep the cut and pastes to a minimum – fair use rules apply here as well as the rest of the copyright world.
So the US puts its criminals in prison, unlike Canada where they’re still stealing cars after 32 convictions.
The important stat to be gleaned from this increased rate of incarceration is what it’s doing to crime. In the last decade the US violent crime rate has more than halved.
In other words, prisons work.
Hi I am enjoying your blog. I have created my own in an attempt to have the CBC abolished. Please visit and post your comments.
Nealsnews doesn’t miss a beat. It’s not often they link a 4 page article. Good stuff
are we done yet?
Way to go Kate!!! Dispite the occasional visit from windbags like Chris Bennett this is a great blog. I sincerely hope that blogs will have a greater impact on the Canadian politial process. In reading this blog (and several others) I know that my thoughts are shared with many others. Don’t ever stop!!!
Nice mention of the Star-Phoenix article and a link to Kate on Colby Cosh’s blog:
http://www.colbycosh.com/
Mark
Ottawa
“CITIZEN JOURNALISM IS HERE TO STAY”
Kate at the excellent Small Dead Animals, reflects on blogging and the media in Canada….
Jeong Hye Jin & The New York Times
The New York Times, MSNBC and Fox are just a few media outlets beginning to look to blogs as a source of information. Across the northern border, Small Dead Animals takes a look at how Canadian media is being influenced by bloggers. Independent Sourc…
Good post Kate and congrats for being cited
Now that I”ve finished housecleaning this thread of off-topic cannibis crap, I’m going to elaborate on what I meant by last warning.
Next one gets deleted and banned – and that includes “regulars”.
see what drugs can just say no lol
chris and dr green your just mad there not kissing marcs a## grow up the world does not owe marc a damn thing hes a looser and the world be better off with out him !
I’ve noticed of late that Kate is putting more of her own voice into her postings (like this one) rather than a link or cut & paste with an editorial quip. I like it. Kate is a great asset in the blogosphere… and that is coming from someone who blogs to the left of her (or, as I might self-sanctimoniously put it, from the middle).
And you don’t need to slag on the MSM in order to recognize the importance of the blogs to culture and politics, and especially blogs like Kate’s. They are serving several different purposes as well as some similar ones. They are a good complement to each other I think: a good blog is some individual’s personal take on the world (as opposed to mere repetition of party press releases) making local and global issues personal and a good media is an impersonal reporting giving a broad group of people access to facts and information they don’t have the time to get themselves; the blogosphere keeps sloppy or biased reporting in check while the MSM has access to people, information and distribution networks that bloggers don’t.
But as bloggers and commenters let’s not be blind to our own faults. Blogging is not a panacea for democracy. Blogs are not, as ET puts it up above, “by the people, for the people, about the people.” A blog is written by one person with their view, regardless of whether it is “for the people” or not (whoever “the people” are), and just often as not “the people” be damned. As Kate says in her own masthead her blog is “just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio – “You don’t speak for me.” ” The blogosphere is more like a marketplace of ideas: here’s my thoughts, if you don’t like them comment and if you really don’t like them go rant somewhere else. If you put up interesting ideas/links, interesting content, then readers (those who agree and disagree) will gravitate to your site, as is the case with SDA. Without meaning to de-value the growing importance of blogs, which I believe in, we can’t forget that the individualism and unedited personal take on the world can lend itself to mere diatribing, slander, invective and the worst kind of plain old-fashioned gossip-mongering on a grander scale. Fortunately, we don’t see much of that in Kate’s posts (the comments section, however, is another matter as this post pre-housecleaning demonstrates).
The blogosphere is like democracy with everyone given a voice (and therefore just as often messy and defamatory as it is illuminating and motivating), but it is not, as many have said up above, democracy itself. It is a place for comments and has the great potential at this moment in time to convert that commenting energy into democratic action, but so far that has not happened the way it has in the US. And in that regard, conservatives are ahead of the game in large part because, at least at the federal level, they have been shut out of power for a decade and naturally have more to complain about just at the precise time when the internet provides them with a tool to vocalize and find common cause with others. I think, as with the Democrats in the US, it will take the Liberals being shunted out of power for liberals blogging to take off.
Personally, I think one of the greatest attributes of the blogosphere is that it gives individuals their own voice outside of political parties altogether. Come election time, the messages of many (most?) of the Blogging Tories and the Libloggers will synthesize into an unfortunately more consistent message, but until then there are voices ranging the full spectrum of Canadian thought. And from there germinates new and fresh ideas about how Canada can be a better place.
TB
Cerberus
Adding my “own voice”, as you put it, is something I’ve done since I started the blog.
However, the other big difference between the pure “thinker” the “linker” blog is posting frequency. With an average of 6 – 8 posts a day, it’s simply not possible, time wise, to expand on every topic that catches my eye, so I do a mix.
And sometimes, less is better – there are news events (Cindy Sheehan) that don’t deserve lengthy analysis.
When I said, you are “putting more of [your] own voice into [your] postings” I meant (and should have written) “your own words”. It’s too bad you don’t have the time because you have a more insightful and elegant and often humourous way of articulating your thoughts (like your 4th paragraph in this post) than most, including long-winded me.
I agree with you that brevity is often better (and the jab about Sheehan is fair) and is certainly a skill I could learn myself. 😉
Anyway, for what it’s worth, a raising of the glass to you and your blogging style.
TB
Cerberus
Fully on topic from now on, and NO straying, no matter however some leftists get to me…
I admit to concurrence with TB in much of what was said in the above posting. Shocking, yes.
I have come to the realization it’s time for me to seriously investigate the logistics of starting and operating my own blog as I do feel guilty for taking advantage the other day. I will then use it to deal with leftists, the Libranos and whatever matters I feel I must address. Not with my real name, but it’ll be me. I already have decided upon the perfect moniker for the blog, so eventually Stephen McAllister’s presence will be replaced with his alter identity. You’ll then interact with that “character”. Perhaps nothing much will come of it, or perhaps something will…
Interesting to see how quickly comments that ought to have been about the role of blogging in Canadian media quickly became an attack (likely by Blogging Tories) on their favourite old target: the CBC.
If you look more closely at the blogging which does get attention in mainstream American media, you’ll find that it is something much more substantial than yet another rant against public broadcasting for having supposedly shut out the voice of the political right.
Some of the sites that get noticed are the ones that break news, that is they are functioning as an alternative source of information. Lamenting the sorry state of the Conservative Party, blaming the mainstream media (now reduced to the acronym MSM without ever discussing whether mainstream exists at all)
Ditto for Canada – in my own case, my blog has generated media attention and brought some media interviews – partisan stripe isn’t an issue: whyat gets attention is the non-partisan content of my blog.
Some of the blog sites that get media attention are maintained by indentified spokespeople for political points of view – blogging is just another outlet for their self-expression.
The rest are essentially as Kate described them in her original post: letters to the editor. To call them a source of news is to distort the nature of news and information into a meanigless pile of partisan talking points.
Just think about blogs as letters to the editor. Then look at the attention other media have paid to blogging. Blogging gets the attention it deserves, unless it actually has managed to provide information and news. Then it becomes something other than a blog.
In the meantime though, Blogging Tories are still just…a bunch of people who post similar arguments and spend a lot of time reading each other’s stuff to see what the other guys have already posted. Good for the BTs.
It will be interesting to see how this site of debate and the worthwhile exchange of information and ideas will gather even more momentum as September arrives and the house gets underway again.
I look forward to the time when this site and others like it learn how to join forces and bring profound pressure to bear on selected policy important to all Canadians.
Newspapers have great influence as a political spin that originates in Toronto is spread electronically to all major centres in Canada and appears in the affiliated *local* paper.
One looks forward to a time when a regular feature appears in printed media entitled *CanaBlog* or similar, where selected better writings and ideas are covered.
That would certainly add colour to the MSM.
No doubt we could expect some good next step ideas, pushing the envelope a little.
Actually, *bogosphere sections could eventually outstrip *letters to the Editor* in scope.
In the 70s and eighties we had long and deep discussions on single sideband frequencies a little above the regular 40 channels on Citizen Band Radio.
The groups were smallish and mostly regular hams so it never caught on to real growth.
CB radio’s downfall was due to the excessive use of power amps and the common screaming for DX [distant] contacts.
Those are not factors in the blogosphere so I think it’s going to be a great ride for all of us. Hang on! 73s TG