23 March 2006

Synchronicity

I'm currently reading Naked Conversations (sub-title: "how blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers"). It's full of well-told anecdotes and some interesting ideas, although I'm not convinced yet that it will add up to more than a "corporate blogging is cool" kind of message.

That notwithstanding, I was slightly taken aback to find myself living out one of the ideas from the book. This came from the inimitable Dave Winer, who said, speaking of journalists:

They don't want the light shone on themselves, which is ironic because journalists are experts at shining the light on others.... This is why we have blogs. We have blogs because we can't trust these guys.

Speaking as a journalist, can I just say "Thanks, Dave," for that vote of confidence.

But the idea that bloggers can watch the journalists watching them is all-too true, as I found when I went to Paul Jones' blog, and found this posting, in which he not only tells the entire world what I'm up to (no great secret, to be sure), but also effectively says that he will be publishing his side of the story when my article comes out so that readers can check up on whether I've done a good job.

The only consolation is that at least I can leave a comment on his posting on my article about him....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't be upset. News is a conversation (to quote Doc Searls and Dan Gillmor indirectly). I respect your reporting, but why not make the experience richer?
My collegue Chris Roush and I have slightly different views on this at his Talking Biz News blog.

Anonymous said...
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Glyn Moody said...

I'm not upset: it's just a novel experience for a journalist. I'm sure I'll get used to it....