Just Another Cultural Co-Op? / Blogging hits the mainstream, for better or worse
Blogging “punctures the self-importance of gatekeepers, ombudsmen, media critics, J-school profs and everybody else who is institutionally biased toward defending the values of monopolist daily newspapers,” says Matt Welch. “It has allowed many people to realize that the weird retired guy down the street is a better and more interesting writer than anyone on the local op-ed page.”
If this keeps up, perhaps we’ll see more and more of the trade schools that have insinuated their way into higher education wither and die.
If a broad, humanities-based education or solid life experience were good enough for the founders of this country, it should be good enough for the rest of us.
It is odd how we have moved over the past 200-300 years from producers of our own entertainment to consumers. How many people today play music or sing or write for the pleasure of it and to share with others? I’m not talking about journals and novels in progress but stuff to share after dinner. This wasn’t uncommon years ago, but with the advent of commercial media, particularly broadcast media, we have looked to others to do that for us.
Perhaps the weblog ethic will spread and more people will do their thing.
from John