Will Mainstream Media Co-opt Blogs and the Internet?

Gleaned from presentations at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting (2004), this brief article suggests that weblogs (blogs) "are one of the hottest media phenomena of the past few years. By creating Internet sites where individuals can post their thoughts on politics, culture, art, sports, science (or just about any other field of human endeavour) bloggers have attracted the attention of cultural critics and media barons alike." As of this writing, a leading indexing service had reportedly tracked over 1.5 million blogs; this article examines how this growing form may evolve in coming years.

Specifically, comments from participants at the WEF meeting suggest potential trends in this communication medium:

• Blogging has the potential to turn consumers of media content into producers of that content - "an incredibly radical development". Associated concern that blogs might undermine the news gathering and filtering role of the mainstream media also are probably overblown: "The age of the mass media is just that - an age....It doesn't have to last forever." (Jay Rosen, Chair, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, New York University, USA)
• News seems to start when a trend or event is noticed by a lesser-known blog, then amplified by a social network until it comes to the attention of a "power blog". From there it may even enter the mainstream mass media. (Joichi Ito, President and Chief Executive Officer, Neoteny, Japan)
• Blogs have become a vehicle of self-discovery for many writers and artists, some of whom had never before thought of themselves as content producers - perhaps even in the process stealing attention from the mainstream press. (Loïc Le Meur, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ublog, France)
• Blogging "also reinforces the trend towards media fragmentation - in which audiences are divided into progressively smaller niche markets. 'It's a fracturing of the town square....While more information is available, there is less space for a common discourse." (Orville H. Schell, Dean, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, USA)
• Some speculate that a profitable business model will be found for blogging: "It's like art - you can't predict it. But if the audience is there, a business model will emerge. I'm sure of it." (Hubert Burda, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer, Hubert Burda Media, Germany)