And to give credit where credit is due, I came across this story on one of my favorite sites, www.whatreallyhappened.com. Michael Rivero is the lead man on this site, and I have thoroughly enjoyed his take on many subjects in the past five years. I am blogger... hear me roar!
Blogs as reliable as mainstream media - ACCC
October 16, 2007 05:41pm
CONSUMERS who get their news from the internet are likely to trust a blog for reliability as much as a mainstream media site, the competition watchdog said today.
Graeme Samuel, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman, said a recent report by search engine Technorati showed the number of non-mainstream blogs in the 100 most popular information websites was rising.
"What is even more worrying for traditional media organisations is that some of their assumptions about users trusting known brands are starting to look a little shaky," Mr Samuel told a Walkley business lunch in Sydney today.
"User-testing in early 2007 indicated to those carrying out Technorati's survey that audiences are less and less likely to distinguish a blog from, say, nytimes.com or other mainstream media sites," he said.
"For a growing base of users, these are all equally valid sources of news, information, entertainment and gossip, and users are not necessarily discriminating between traditional and new sources."
Mr Samuel said although "old" media companies still dominated many of the most visited sites, they could no longer assume users would always default back to "traditional houses of journalism".
This meant the media had to find new ways of remaining relevant to a fragmented and disloyal audience.
"For regulators like the ACCC, it means ensuring regulation relied on during the last century does not become an irrelevant fallback position that fails to serve the public's best interests," he said.
Mr Samuel said moves by traditional media outlets to "lock up" their premium online content and make it available only to subscribers had largely been unsuccessful.
Some media outlets had responded to the digital age by including blogs - moderated by journalists - alongside traditional articles and commentary on websites.
Television stations were also making content available online and radio was podcasting and streaming on-demand content.
Mr Samuel said ACCC's role was to ensure content did not become locked in the hands of the few, to the detriment of consumers or advertisers.
"Despite the apparent increase in diversity that the digital age promises, there are still very real risks that we may end up the poorer if we do not keep our eye on just where control lies for the material we want to receive," Mr Samuel said.
"As I've mentioned before, with the actual distribution models constantly changing, second-guessing and trying to control the dominant platforms isn't likely to be a successful strategy."
