Davos Newbies

Where weblogs are going

Edward Cone, a North Carolina-based journalist, has written an intelligent perspective on the power of weblogs.

I was most struck by two of his points. “The key is that there will bloggers in those cities [where major media may or may not have a bureau], too, who will report first-hand both fact and opinion. This is part of blogging’s true power, the democratization of the distribution of information… Bloggers will lead, drive, and shape the news coverage of the major media.” As someone exercised by the India-Pakistan dispute, for example, I’d love to have a directory of weblogs on both sides of the divide (but they’d need to be in English).

Cone also cites community. “Another important element is blogging’s network effect-the tendency of bloggers to link to each other, providing a running conversation between interested parties that is available for anyone to read.” It’s still true that most of the traffic in the weblog world concerns technology issues. But I’m confident that over time there will be a richer diet of conversation on other spheres of thought and activity.  

Snowmail

Here’s a good use of email. Jon Snow, the anchorman for the Channel 4 News, sends out an afternoon bulletin with a heads-up on the key stories he’ll be covering that evening.

I know lots of stations do this in the US, but Snow’s email is clearly written by the man himself and it isn’t just a promotional tool. Here’s today’s offering: “He’s gone. Stephen Byers of whom we shall no longer be able to say ‘the embattled Transport Secretary’. He has fallen on his sword in a rather dramatic moment in an upstairs room in 10 Downing Street. Cameras were summoned for an undescribed event, the rumour mill churning with such fanciful ideas ranging from Cherie’s 5th pregnancy to a Tony Blair quote ‘I’m off to become a corporate lawyer’. But in the end it was Stephen Byers and an end that came as unexpectedly as his decision not to resign when the original September 11th email row broke.”

It’s a parochial story on the world stage, but I was certainly interested.

Joe’s great adventure

Joe Klein, of Primary Colors fame, is tramping around Europe for six weeks on behalf of The Guardian. He intends to explore the apparently widening divide between the US and Europe. I’m usually suspicious of series constructed by parachuting a writer into somewhere they have little knowledge of. But on the basis of the first instalment, in France, I certainly intend to follow Klein’s journey.

His stay in Paris is interesting, but rounds up the usual suspects to a degree. But he had a good reporter’s instinct to head to the depressed northeast of France and find out a bit about the disaffected immigrant community there. Well worth a read.