Today I had lunch (a sandwich and coffee anyway) with my friend Kristine Lowe, who is a journalist – you know, one of those people who writes stories for a “newspaper”, which is “printed”, on a Big Machine somewhere in London. The newspaper that Kristine writes for is called the “Daily Express”. She had a story in it today, about the improving business performance of a company called London Clubs International, which is now doing better than it was, because of the relaxing of the British regulations concerning gambling which apparently occurred last August. (So something is being deregulated here, even if it’s only gambling.)
The reason I am reporting for Samizdata.net on this meeting is that, much to my surprise, I found that I was able to tell Kristine things – about business, about the big wide world, about the world of men trying to damage each other – things which she didn’t know much about and which I knew somewhat more about, as a result of me being a blogger. I talked of Glenn Reynolds (K: Who is he? What does he do when he’s not blogging?”) and of Trent Lott (“Who’s Trent Lott?” – this despite Lott having finally made it to the British TV news shows last night), of the arguments about data copying and patent protection, in connection with the music industry and the pharmaceutical industry. I told her of particular bloggers to pay attention to, such as Stephen Pollard (pharmaceutical patents and intellectual property generally), Michael Jennings (telecommunications), my recent discovery China Hand (China), and Reynolds of course (for the Lott story, and for his very different take on intellectual property).
I had assumed that my blogging activities would be a matter of at most polite interest, but basically indifference – like amateur dramatics talk to a real professional actor. But actually Kristine started scribbling things down and didn’t stop until her lunch hour did. Interesting. I wonder if anything – Daily Express-wise – will come of this.
We haven’t become The Media. But we are starting to be a part of The Media’s nervous system.
And, you thought newspaper reporters would know something?
u have many links yes.
There was a time when the dinosaurs first noticed small furry things scurrying around their ankles, but couldn’t decide if they were important. I wonder if this is such a time.
Lonewacko:
Yes I do think newspaper reporters know things, and Kristine knows a very great deal about all sorts of things of which I know nothing. It has been pointed out to me that I may have made it seem as if I thought Kristine ignorant about things in general (e.g. for not happening to know about the particular matter of Trent Lott), but I think no such thing. She is nothing of the kind, and I apologise unreservedly to her for any such implication, and to all samizdata readers for thus misleading them, insofar as I did. I wrote my report very badly, in that respect.
The surprise for me was that, well informed about all manner of things as Kristine is, I was able to tell her anything much at all that would be of interest or potential value to her in her work as a financial journalist.
As for those dinosaurs (Ernie G.), it’s my understanding that it took a giant meteorite to see them off, and that only after that did the small furry things take over.
Judging by the way the Trent Lott affair developed, I think we can say the blogosphere is part of The Media, and is perhaps the final proof of McLuhan’s global village concepts.
The way blogging, with its rapid turnaround time and close focus among effective communicators, can affect the wider world of public communications is ample illustration of the dictum “The Media is the Message”
Duh! The Medium is the Message” I should have said.
What does “The Medium is the Message” mean anyway?
I’d suggest reading “Understanding Media”. It’s well worth it, especially since we are living in the world McLuhan anticipated. What he could not have projected was that the global village created by TV itself would split into even smaller communities of mutual interest, since the Net was undreamt of when he wrote his seminal works. Blogging is a hot medium like radio was. The brain has to get engaged and the effects are galvanising.
It is suggested that Hitler, for example, could not have succeeded in a cool TV information culture, because every shortcoming would have been clearly exposed and the melodrama would simply have been way over the top. Radio, a hot medium,
allowed him to flourish and grow in the imagination.