If RyanAir and the NUJ don’t care what bloggers think, they might at least consider what Google thinks of bloggers, since that will hit them right where it hurts.
Both organisations have been at the centre of blog-hosted rows in which representatives have attacked bloggers in particular and – worse – blogging in general. A RyanAir representative said: “Lunatic bloggers can have the blogosphere all to themselves.” And the chair of the NUJ’s training committee said: “Bloggers rejoice in having lower standards.”
A blogger could just as easily be a very senior national newspaper journalist or a blue-chip CEO as an 11 year-old malcontent, so the very idea that ‘bloggers’ is in itself a category of people to be written off or otherwise is astonishing.
However, since it seems neither organisation looks likely to buy the philosophical argument for treating bloggers (since they represent everybody) with respect, how about a more prosaic one? A VNUnet blog story “Ryanair versus the bloggers” appears in the fourth natural listing in Google for a search on the term ‘RyanAir’. For the term ‘NUJ’, a Guardian blog post “NUJ training chair at centre of blog storm” appears second on page 2 and second on page 1 in Google News.
They don’t have to like ‘the blogosphere’, but its impact on their natural search profile at least, tells us that blogs – and online social media in general – deserve brands’ most considered attention.
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March 3rd, 2009 at 12:57 am
Oh, for god’s sake, stop trying to prove Chris’ (over-stated and not very useful) point for him! The NUJ doesn’t care about bloggers? Really? That’s why I, the most senior elected representative for the union in new media, am posting here and have posted on nearly every blog discussing this issue, trying to engage with bloggers.
That’s why we accept bloggers into membership, that’s why we’ve criticised China for imprisoning bloggers, that’s why numerous groups of striking members have launched blogs. I’m getting very tired of this – if you’re so annoyed by Chris’ statement that bloggers have lower standards, perhaps you could try to check your facts before posting.
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:10 am
If this is one of your attempts to engage with bloggers, it’s an astonishing failure since all it does is prove my point.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:25 am
So, you can write something that’s completely untrue, but when I challenge you on it, it’s an “attack”. I didn’t attack the standards of bloggers, I criticised your article’s blatant failure to present the facts of the situation. But, hey, if you prefer engaging in ad hominen arguments, that’s up to you.
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:42 am
Donna,
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:33 pm
You start your piece:
“If RyanAir and the NUJ don’t care what bloggers think…”
That’s both incorrect and deeply annoying to me as the person who has spent a considerable amount of time engaging with bloggers and blogs to show the opposite. You have characterised an entire union based on the comments of one individual, while ignoring completely comments of others (some, like me, with formal positions more germane to the issue than Chris’).
Respect isn’t automatic, you need to earn it. I don’t generalise “bloggers”, some I respect, some I don’t and most I don’t have any opinion about.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
The only view I’ve come across from the NUJ about bloggers is Chris’. And now yours. What do you think my perception is of the NUJ at the moment? And I’m a former member…
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Loving the comment stream guys.
Donnacha, it might be worth my pointing out that bloggers will often look for a “controversy hook” – ideally in the headline of the post, or failing that, the first paragraph. It’s a much more TV-journalistic style of writing. A style that I suspect Nick Davies (featured on the most March/April cover of the NUJ’s magazine The Journalist) might call “churnalism.”
But, Donnacha, looking through that magazine, I find only two mentions of the word “blog” in the main copy (although I do see that you’re offering key blogging and online publishing courses.)
The way I understand it, the NUJ isn’t anti-technology or anti-blogger, but against the idea of media owners using new technologies to further their corporate interests at the expense of the reader.
And yet, I’d point out, we readers are leaving your well-meaning, well-researched, well-written journalism behind. Are you going to have to force us to read properly?
Don’t get me wrong — I think it’s great that there are voices of caution or even dissenting voices in the debate about where our news and information come from, and I can think of no better organization than the NUJ to represent one of those voices. After all, the new media technologies have been shaking up the relationships between reader and journalist, journalist and media owner, and media owner and advertiser.
I’ve taken a look at the NUJ’s new media blog. I was particularly amused by a verbatim repost of a story concerning a conspiracy-theorist and his wife being threatened by armed men in suits from the obviously nutty Truthseeker.co.uk site — “This website has been coming under sustained cyber-attack recently. It’s up right now but obviously well resourced and sophisticated parties are doing their utmost to silence it. If you cannot access the website at anytime please try again later. Ed.”)
If this is what the NUJ understands by “blogging”, I’m not surprised they’re feeling a little faint at the thought of bloggers taking over the news.
March 9th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Thanks Matt. It’s a shame the key point of the post – which is that Google picks up blogs very strongly and is a fundamental reason to engage constructively in ‘the blogosphere’ – has not bveen the focus of discussion. I’ll have to accept responsibility for that.
March 10th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
As an adjoinder to this post, Niall Hunt, who sits on the NUJ’s NEC, has commented on the original post at http://www.onemanandhisblog.com/archives/2009/02/nuj_effing_blogs.html. It shows how it is possible to make a positive contribution that redresses perceptions. Indeed, addressing misconceptions is a key way that brands can use (and are using) social media platforms like blogs, Twitter etc.
March 13th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Until the NUJ stops seeing “bloggers” as something “other” then there will always be a subtle and unpoken message: “you’re not as good / clever / valid as us”.
That might not be the message you mean to communicate. Just as you may not wish to communicate defensiveness or aggression in your commentary above.
But they are certainly the messages I am receiving.
Time to re-think the tactics on your engagement strategy perhaps?