May

2

Blogosphere does not equal Internet

May 2, 2008 |

There is an interesting mini-controversy over whether or not a KSHB-41 reporter got a story idea from the KCTalk.com discussion board and failed to credit the source. Regardless of the controversy itself, it is interesting how the legacy media like John Landsberg are using the terms blog and blogosphere. At best it is an example of lazy reporting. At worst it is an xample of people struggling to report on something they don’t really understand

KCTalk.com is not a blog.  It is a discussion board. Calling it a blog would be like calling a sitcom a newscast.  Blogs and discussion boards are two very different types of web sites that happen to use the same medium, the Internet.


Comments

5 Comments so far

  1. JL on May 2, 2008 12:39 pm

    Good point. I will correct it. I’m old. Cut me a break.

  2. Tony on May 2, 2008 2:05 pm

    I agree that there is a distinction but I’ve always wondered what it is . . . KC Talk has an RSS feed just like a blog but their content isn’t organized in a “most recent to oldest” format which is typical on most blogs. The site is written by multiple authors but so are many blogs. KC Talk is mostly discussion but it’s also true of the best blogs that the discussions are the most exciting part of the content. Is it simply a case of the software that they are using? Finally, most of the new case law and decisions that protect Internet speech apply across the board from discussion boards to webpages like Drudge to blogs. I’m just wondering: What is it about a blog that makes it a blog?

  3. bob berdella on May 2, 2008 2:53 pm

    KCtalk.com is for old people.

  4. mr. matt on May 3, 2008 8:30 am

    “knock knock”

    “who is there?”

    “who cares!!!!!!!!!!!”

  5. ryan on May 4, 2008 10:07 pm

    The distinction between a blog and a discussion board is a trivial one, and I think as the ‘net matures it will eventually not exist at all. The only difference is that at a “blog” there is an editor or a team of editors responsible for deciding which content makes the cut and which doesn’t, then discussion proceeds under “comments”. Say, like what is happening here. In a discussion board, the membership itself decides which content makes the cut by virtue of continually responding to it and keeping it “bumped” or at the top of the page.

    The similarities are greater than the differences, and I imagine that it won’t be long before the two concepts merge. They already have, sort of (see digg.com and others) but none of what we’ve seen so far are a full realization of the hybrid model. It won’t be long, though.

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