What's This Thing For, Anyway?

I think I've figured something out. Took me long enough.

I've been reading blogs for darn near ever now. I started writing my own back in 2002 or 3, got busy and didn't pick it back up again until Patrick suggested it as a novel way to shut me up in Sunday School. (If I write about it during the week it won't interrupt the lesson as it comes spewing forth, or so the theory goes.)

I almost went to BlogNashville last year but the thought of getting my eyebrows waxed to be around all those people was unnerving. So I missed the big coming-out party but have still played in the sandbox happily. (On a related note, I got my eyebrows waxed last week so someone better plan a get-together right quick. I'm still in the John Waters Moustache phase. Next week it'll be Brooke Shields. The week after, Londo Mollari.)

Back to the "topic", such as it is. This whole Bill Hobbs < drawing cartoons thing has got me thinking about what blogs really are, versus what people think they are, versus what they have the potential to be.

What Blogs Are
The entire blogosphere as a whole is like a giant newspaper with eleventy-million contributors. Some blogs are the classifieds ("I love what you write! Please visit my Lose Pounds Fast blog!"), some are serious reporting, but the majority seems to be the Lifestyle, Leisure, Opinion and Comics sections. The best blogs are a little bit of everything--a microcosmic newspaper inside the larger sphere. But for the most part, it seems to me that blogs are where people get to type their little voices in hopes of joining the bigger voice. That's not a bad thing. What's bad is when people confuse what blogs are with

What People Think Blogs Are
There have been a few shining moments in the history of journalistic blogging. I don't doubt that there are umpteen thousands of blog proprietors who want to be the next Power Line and stake a claim in the Serious Journalism camp. Right now there are guys and gals with lap tops who hate the practice of law and dream of being the next Woodward, the next Bernstein, the next Steinem. (Seriously, I hear at least three major universities are changing the names of their Juris Doctor programs to Blawg School.) These blogs are a good thing. The efforts and intentions of these bloggers is appreciated. But just as the front page isn't the whole paper, these blogs aren't the whole blogosphere.

Not everyone who blogs (ie. yours truly) is a journalist. Four years ago that was the battle-cry of Reynolds and Co. It was noble to disavow journalism and storm the ramparts. Now their fondest wish has come true. Bloggers are NOT journalists. And for some reason this is ruffling a few feathers.
I understand the ruffled feathers. I get that these are the growing pains necessary on the journey to

What Blogs Have The Potential To Be
Blogs can be a near-endless source of material. (Witness Spragens finding a story in the murky waters of the Nashosphere). Blogs can be a good source of talent. (Witness WKRN's discovery of A.C. Kleinheider's writing and political analytical skill.) Blogs can be a way to meet people (BlogNashville) from all walks of life. Pussy City Boys and Christian Libertarian 'bama Boys can trade dialogue. Blogs have the potential to be the most all-encompassing yet intimate media in history.

But the blogosphere will never reach that point if everyone doesn't learn to share.
The Big News guys need to realise that the rules are changing a bit. Realise that you are part of a community. Don't go around thinking that you're Jack on Lost---slightly better than the rest of the islanders because you have more extensive training. The blogosphere is less important than you think it is.

Those of us SmallFry need to realise that we're metaphorically stepping on toes by purporting to do a job overnight that others trained years to master. We need to realise that there are people with high hopes for the blogosphere that are continually frustrated by our insistance on writing about teething babies, unwaxed eyebrows and every little thing that happens on Grey's Anatomy. The blogosphere is more important than we think it is.

Everyone in the other media outlets needs to realise that the Blogosphere's unique appeal is its intrinsic partiality. The blogosphere exists to let people shoot their mouths off. Leftists will be unabashedly left, while Rightists will be unequivocally right. The Libertarians will be unabashadly contrary and are contractually obliged to snidely refer to the "war on drugs" at least once every two weeks.

I've had to learn the hard way that other people don't need to run their blogs the way I would run mine. They should--but they don't need to. Otherwise, what's the point of a blog anyway? All the hookups are happening over at MySpace.