Today’s San Jose Mercury News includes an article by Knight-Ridder reporter Ellen Lee entitled Many Internet users lagging on lingo. It’s about the recent Tech Term Awareness survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
I found myself in stitches over a particularly telling editorial oversight in this piece…
Lee wrote, “Only 9 percent of respondents said they had a ‘good idea’ of the definition of RSS feeds, which lets people who enjoy reading blogs, or online diaries, subscribe and receive the latest post as soon as it is published.”
…I’m not surprised by that figure, because – as I’ve said for years – the term “RSS” is needlessly geeky and offputting to nontechnical people. If we’d just started calling them feeds right from the start, I’d wager that far more internet users would have at least a passing acquaintence with the term by now.
What’s in a name? General accessibility, that’s what.
However, that’s not the main reason for this post.
ANOTHER MEDIA “D’OH!” MOMENT
What’s with defining weblogs as “online diaries?” D’oh!!! The Pew survey report does not define blogs that way. Therefore I assume that either Ellen Lee or one of her editors inserted that trivializing mis-definition into the article.
How fitting, given that article’s topic. Anyone who blithely defines blogs as “online diaries” probably hasn’t read many blogs. This kind of gaffe can undermine the credibility of anyone covering online media.
Ellen Lee (and Knight-Ridder), you might want to check out What’s a Blog? Bag the Stereotypes. There’s no need to appear clueless regarding the rich diversity of weblogs.
In that article, I explained why defining blogs as “personal online diaries” is a grossly misleading stereotype which warps public discussion and understanding about weblogs:
“Stereotype: Weblogs are personal diaries, usually amateurish. Well, that’s like saying most of the universe is hydrogen and dust. Yeah, BUT: There are galaxies and black holes and planets and nebulae, too. Which would you rather focus on? It’s true that the vast majority of weblogs are more or less hobby projects. In fact, most weblogs are experiments that get abandoned by their creators due to a lack of time or interest. However, there’s a large and growing number of weblog projects that are serious, consistent, high-quality publishing efforts by individuals, groups, or organizations. This is generally the most important and intriguing aspect of the blogosphere. That’s the context to focus on, unless you’re talking to people specifically about online diaries or journaling.”
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