JOURNALISM IS DEAD, LONG LIVE BLOGGING was the disturbing message to emerge from SXSW Interactive last week, as self-proclaimed 'social media gurus' flooded Austin to play Guitar Hero, talk Twitter and blog about blogging.
Attending such enlightening panels as Try Making Yourself More Interesting, IM Video Journalism, Everything I Needed to Know About the Web I Learned from Feminism and Dad is the New Mom, boggers bigged themselves up and loudly proclaimed themselves new-age ceWEBrities as content flushed its own head down the toilet.

"What are you doing," this INQ reporter asked a preoccupied-looking individual in the blogger's lounge during a daily "tweet up" (Think loud, self-obsessed people in weird clothing typing away feverishly on Macs). "Retweeting a tweet about how to be a better twitterer," came the reply.
"I have five blogs already and I'm thinking of opening a sixth," blathered another oddly-dressed, pimply individual in his early 20s as he handed out business cards proclaiming himself CEO of his own 'social media content' company.
"What do you blog about?", the INQ asked him. "Oh, you know... everything!" came the reply. Shudder.

Somewhere in a corner, a ruckus started as a purported Ceweb wine blogger, Gary Vaynerchuk, posed for photos with his groupies. "See that guy? He's, like, a total genius," spluttered a star-struck bogger in awe.
How come? Well, it appears Gary makes millions of dollars from a wine blog and videos which make wine tasting 'more accessible' to the unwashed masses.
"Like, he'll say a certain wine tastes like a fruity blend of garlic bread and gummy bears, and then it totally does," the bulgy-eyed stalker cum blogger blathered on.

As the days went by, it became disturbingly more apparent. These self-serving, narcissistic, shallow 'hipsters' couldn't give a monkeys about facts. Nor fact checking for that matter. It was all about feeding a rumour mill with a ceaseless and nauseating stream of 140-character, hyped-up drivel. It was all about filling a void with unformatted, mostly unintelligent, company-sponsored claptrap. Or as Apple would probably patent it, iDiocy.
"What do you blog about?" squeaked a wannabe Britney Spears after filming herself give a giggly interview in the corner. "I don't blog, I write," answered this hack, with an admittedly snobby sneer. "Like, about what?" continued the unrelenting Barbie. "Like about chips and companies who make them," I answered, adding, "like AMD and Intel".

"Oh, hey, I blog about Intel all the time!" said Barbie, adding, "They pay me and give me loads of cool stuff".
"Cool stuff huh?" the INQ baited. "What's your favorite cool Intel product?". Barbie didn't bat an eyelid. Instead, she pulled a Dell notebook out of her pink handbag and declared, "This one!".
"Journalism is dying because you guys can't get stuff out quickly enough," another bogger told the INQ when we asked him if blogging was the future of news.
"We just, you know, hear something and put it straight out there. You guys have to do things 'officially' [sarcasm] and take, like, an hour to get stories out. We're like fast food. Hit the spot in a hurry, you know?". If we at the INQ fumed at this comment, we wonder what the esteemed hacks at the New York Times must be thinking.

Exasperated, we stormed out of the bog-pit only to bump straight into kingpin bogger and Mr Social Media Guru himself, Guy Kawasaki. After proclaiming his love for the Inquirer, and requesting we plug his newest venture (a news aggregator called Alltop) as "the worst site in the world", Kawasaki literally dropped to his knees. A little shocked, I decided to try again.
"So, Mr Kawasaki, is blogging the end of journalism?".

"The more relevant question," Kawasaki proclaimed, beaming up at me, "is, 'Is Twitter the end of blogging?' The answer is 'no' to both. All of these technologies are expanding the pie, not necessarily slicing it up differently."
Guy Kawasaki, you may just be the INQ's favorite blogger.
For what that's now worth! µ
Nice rugby shirt!
Their assertion is *fundamentally flawed* because the very essence of true journalism is objectivity, whereas blogging is inheritly subjective--reflecting the experiences and opinions of the author.
.. requires skill, judgement, a keen mind and the ability to write.
Something the Inq and the bloggers seem to lack.
I think blogging is driven by the very same urge that causes us (readers) to comment on articles we read ;-). Just look at Charlie's nVidia articles - the comments are more fun to read than articles themselves !
By your own definition of blogging (and let's paraphrase that, and say that it's something like: "publishing badly-spelled, and often wildy inaccurate rumours and opinions, on-line, on a glorified bulletin board") how is The Inquirer NOT a blog? Would the print media be able to get away with the continual stream of miss-stories and failed predictions that you lot do, by just forgetting your missteps and pointing to the relatively rare occasions that you get it spot on?
That's not a criticism, by the way: your exisitence proves that this rather vacuous, short-lived, form of publishing has its place. But you're still a blog. The only real grading that distinguishes blogs, is how many people can be bothered reading them. The Inquirer is statistically significant, so you're worth lying-, leaking- and rumouring-to... because enough people read you, and you don't apply a particularly rigorous bullshit filter, to what you're given, before slapping it up, for fear of harming the 'scoop'. As long as your readers have enough nous, to give only as much credence, to what they are reading, as it deserves, then that, too, has its place.
Just don't get too snooty about yourselves, relative to these idiots. There's only one blogger wearing a red cape in a balloon, and it's not you.
... nice shirt!
It's ironic hearing the inquirer call someone elses work 'feeding the rumour mill' considering the rep they have.
So it was a fun read, but i can't help feeling that this article lacks investigation or fact checking, is mostly anecdotal, and somewhat out of place as 'news'. A more suitable home might be, dare i say it, a blog!
You make that shirt look nice
The 'real' inq fans would realize that pointing out the 'irony' in this article (as if she didn't realize it) is like when people post that they don't know what a 'vole' is, or ask the writers to use 'real english.' lol. On the other hand, I love the author (and her shirt) and will gladly give her article a response - it shows the editors (and advertizers) that we pay attention.
This is a great article. I dunno these bloggers seem to think that just becasue someone follows them on Twitter (or whatever it is, I've not checked out Twitter yet) or get a couple of comments on a blog that they're the future of news?
I'm not a journalist myself but having spent nearly 2 years in a busy news room bustling with journos I can just imagine these these iNumpties wouldn't last 5 minutes in the real world of journalism.
As my mate Gareth (news editor) would put it, I'm hating on these blogging tits.
Don't think you've got much to worry about Sylvie.
Rob
I hope all the attention whores are happy now.
Don't bother checking out Twitter, it is about 99% useless. Every time I see a bunch of self important hipsters sitting around blogging, as if they are doing something useful with their laptops covered in stickers, part of me vomits a little.
As fluffy as the Inq can be at times, and as much as Charlie now lives in a conspiracy hole raging against Nvidia, the Inq is not supposed to be a heavy news site. They are opinionated and energetic, and it makes for good reading with information mixed in here and there. The one thing they are not is self important and full of it, and that is what will forever separate them from the blog-o-sphere
Honestly, most of the bloggers in the blogging lounge at SxSW were perhaps the most boring people at the conference. It's like a ponzi scheme to be the most popular kid at school
I wish Hugh Forrest (the guy who puts SxSW together) would reward people like Omar Gallaga, who works for the Austin American Statesman and ACTUALLY produced USEFUL INFORMATION about SxSW. Social media isn't a popularity contest. It's a means to communicate. With the economy being the way it is, there is no time for "social media rockstars".
Firstly, this article, written as it is, is precisely one of the major reasons that "journalism" is dying. Its poorly written, badly researched, lacks credible balance and on the whole is simply trying to pander to a stereotype, after all "everyone" knows bloggers are just pimply young individuals who are just geeks and losers who cant get real jobs so write about their life from the safety of their bedrooms, before their mom's tell them its time for bed. Blogging has come a long way in a very short time. As for the people in the blogging lounge being boring, not sure when you were there Michelle but most of the time I was in there it was a group of lively individuals having a great time and making great conversation, the likes of Chris Brogan, Jason Falls, Shannon Paul, Liz Strauss, Brian Solis, I wouldn't exactly call them boring and I managed to get one to one time with all of them and ask them real questions. Shame the journo writing this didnt bother doing the same. Oh and Omar was probably in the press lounge with the rest of the Journo's, where the writer of this piece should have stayed.
"Oh, hey, I blog about Intel all the time!" said Barbie, adding, "They pay me and give me loads of cool stuff".
*eyes flashing* (ka-ching!)
She got paid from Intel with a Dell laptop. Maybe AMD can use that in court as an example of Dell and Intel being in bed together. ;-)
The problem with blogs is that there are no editors. There are many ego's, some might have something interesting to say, but I doubt most have.
I'm suprised that there isn't a reality web show. Like Big Brother but all on the internet.
The Odwalla bottle really completes that photo