We are a Blog... by Blog Bloke: a blog about blogging

Saturday, February 18, 2006

We are a Blog...

The New York Times reports David L. Sifry (founder of the blog search site Technorati) tells us how complicated the blogosphere has become. According to Sifry mainstream media sites (measured by the number of blogs linking to them) are trouncing news-oriented blogs by a growing margin. Bloggers are linking to the New York Times three times more than they link to blogs. Only four blogs even show up in the top 33 sites at all.

Part of that can be explained by a growing number of news media sites that are temporarily linking to blogs that have linked to their news stories. On the face of it you would think that is benefitting the bloggers.

But when you consider it was Dan Rather's fall from grace that brought attention to the blogosphere, mainstream media is now essentially piggy-backing on our bandwidth so to speak. By encouraging us to link to their stories, traffic is being routed back again to their websties. A vicious cycle where we are obviously the losers. They've effectively hijacked our new-found fame and it's a very clever strategy when you think of it.

Until more blogsites are able to do the real sleuthing and reporting of the news bloggers will continue to be relegated to backroom commentators. That might not be a bad thing as the symbiotic relationship between mainstream media and blogosphere evolves, and in time the lines will become even more blurred. Nevertheless, being in a position of influence instead of doing the actual reporting is not necessarily a bad thing. Just different.