When I first started the Bloggolalia series, no sports blogger I was aware of was writing about blogs. Yes, people were certainly making lists and ranking blogs, but no one was really talking about the business of blogging. I felt a little weird at first. Why wasn't anyone else talking about this, if it was really such an interesting topic? Sure, I knew many other people outside of sports blogging were writing about blogs (it was hardly an original idea from my end), and guys like The Starting Five, D-Wil, and Dave Zirin have been watching the big media watchers for a while, but why not any sports blog analysts?
Well, fast forward to 2008, and I'm pleased to report that other people think talking about sports blogs, on occasion, is ok. Worse, they're doing a better job of it than I am! Maybe I can still get people to call me the Founding Father or something, ha.
BOHChris fond a much better title than I did (Blogsbudsman) and wrote an insightful blog on how to become a well-known sports blogger.
DMT Shooter, at Epic Carnival (just as BOHChris is), wrote on the Top 12 elephants in the room in pro sports. It's not really about blogs, but there are topics here for days and days. Well-thought, too--I especially liked the age and financial issues he brought up. Maybe my favorite post of the month.
Stop Mike Lupica wrote on why we need minority sports writers. It's a topic that I too have opined upon on occasion, and a worthwhile one. It's not about quotas, people; it's about true diversity of opinion. Don't hire minorites just to make the office picture more colorful. Hire people with interesting backgrounds, people that will get you story angles that you never would have thought of.
EDIT: And how could I have forgotten MODI of cosellout.com on my list of media watchers? He does his homework on the issues, and does it well in producing magazine-article and book-length posts that are well-researched.
good stuff MC. I think that you, SML, and I all had the same reaction at the same time... as we should.
ReplyDeleteYour bloggolalia series is important. Someone needs to be keeping score...
Thanks for the shout MC. I agree with Modi in that studying blogs is an important thing. Everyone wonders why the mainstream media doesn't take blogs seriously, but then they're not comfortable with an honest light being shone back at them.
ReplyDeleteThough writing about blogs is kind of tough. I'm limiting the amount of Blogbudsman articles I do now because it's so difficult to try to thing of relevant things that you can really argue for or against at length.
Keep up the good work.