Today, in the world of blogging news, Reuters reports on the findings of a recent study of American bloggers conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The headline: “Storytelling, not journalism, spurs most U.S. blogs.” (Silly us; we always thought journalism was storytelling.)
But we digress. “About 34 percent see their blogging as a form of journalism; 65 percent disagreed,” reports Reuters. “Just over a third of bloggers said they engage often in journalistic activities such as verifying facts and linking to source material.”
“Many people see Web journals or ‘blogs’ as alternatives to the mainstream media, but most Americans who run them do so as a hobby rather than a vocation, according to a report released on Wednesday,” notes Reuters.
All of which has elicited the following reaction from Honky-Tonk Dragon: “Well duh!”
Elsewhere, in the world of breaking blog news, Mediabistro’s TVNewser is reporting today about Monday’s debut of NBC’s Early Nightly — a video blog that features Brian Williams providing daily insights into that evening’s forthcoming newscast.
“The timing is awfully interesting,” writes TVNewser. “On Sunday, CBS announced that Katie Couric would offer a ‘Web-exclusive rundown on-camera from the newsroom’ early each weekday afternoon starting Sept. 5. Then on Monday, NBC premiered the Early Nightly, a daily on-camera video blog by Brian Williams.”
“But the timing is just a coincidence,” adds TVNewser. “NBCers have been talking about and testing the Early Nightly for about two months.”
At least one early reaction to the Early Nightly was not favorable.
“Rocketboom, The Show and other daily news vlogs are getting some serious company, a daily news vlog from NBC,” notes Podcasting News. “The new vlog looks to be an attempt by NBC to tap into the growing audience for vlogs and video podcasts. Unfortunately, at this time the ‘vlog’ is hobbled by the fact that it doesn’t have a video podcast feed, the site isn’t compatible with Firefox, entries aren’t archived and viewers must sit through a 30-second ad to see the video.”
Finally, in other blogging news, the San Francisco Chronicle has managed to combine two trends — self-obsessed parenting and blogging journalists — into one convenient package, a new blog called The Poop.
“This blog was created by four San Francisco Chronicle writers who used to go out a lot, and then had children,” wrote The Poop by way of introduction. “Now we spend most of our time gossiping about parenting techniques and insanely expensive baby accessories while trying to convince ourselves we’re still fun.”
At least one blogger, however, felt convinced of something else — specifically, that The Poop was moving in on her territory.
“Poop? That’s the name of the new blog at the San Francisco Chronicle?” asks Abby the Babyblogger. “That is really lame. I mean, it’s written by a bunch of parents. I’m the expert on poop around here. Plus, if you want to know what appeals to babies, why not bring in someone from the right age group? I should be writing the scoop on poop!”
Felix Gillette writes about the media for The New York Observer.