Stalking..No..Writing And Geeks

Sorry for the delay on the post today. I went out early this morning to a press conference. I didn't know press conferences existed any more. I assumed it was all done by email and video somethinging and podsomethingelseing nowadays. But there they were, real journalists, with their real notepads and their practised shorthand, and their hands up as soon as the presentation was finished to ask their questions. They seemed to get the stuff they needed, but it did all seem a little anachronistic and clunky and..well uncool and untechie.

But I am biased against traditional print journalism at the moment, because I noticed an anti-blogger movement in the papers I read over the weekend, especially from Rachel Cooke in The Observer who twisted herself into a corner by arguing that the only people who should be allowed to write about anything are people who can really write (as opposed to bloggers).

Now I've written before about how crap most blogs are - written and otherwise. So I am not disagreeing with Ms Cooke about the fact that many people who do write shouldn't be allowed to. But I sense a different dynamic here, a flurry of despair and fear that digital communications is breaking down the barriers about who can and should be 'allowed' to comment on the arts or the news or sport or whatever. I disagree with the Google bloke who said the Internet was creating a democratisation of information. But it is creating a democratisation of access to platforms from which people can speak and be heard/read. (I know this isn't a new idea. But the only other thing I was going to write about today was stalkers, so give me a break.)

Good old fashioned human jealousy is written all over this one. Print or traditional journalists are jealous that any old freak with a PC can (ostensibly) reach large audiences with his or her opinions without having had to learn their 'trade' the hard way as a cub reporter on the Oxshott Bugle, rising slowly through the ranks to their eventual reward of a column in a decent national. There is also a jealousy about the money that can be made through digital communications, compared to the modest income of the worthy news hound whose only bonus is a couple of comp tickets to The Lion King and the odd nice lunch. And there is also the absolute jealousy of the lone blogger believing that he or she 'deserves' to be paid to write a column just because they 'publish' a few hundred words every week or so on their blog. (Hence their unfounded and nasty attacks on columnists like Cooke who do have a column.)

Jealousy and fear: that the geeks are taking over. Which as far as I can see they are, and it is a pretty advanced campaign. And the only choice that the Rachel Cookes of this world have is not to go on about decent writing, but to seek out more audiences who can judge whether or not she is a good writer. Writer versus geek is about as useful as geek versus writer. While the two continue to be so suspicious of each other, neither will assist each other in their 'art' and expertise.

(Actually, you know what? Since I wrote this I read that the most ever watched video on the net is of a boy pretending a golf club is a light saber, followed by that Paris Hilton sex tape, and footage of an exploding whale. Maybe I should have stuck to the stuff about stalking. It looks like it is too late to save the net from itself, and the geeks and artists and bloggers who sail on it.)