Pajamas and the Meanstream...
William Safire yesterday published an article entitled "The Depressed Press," beginning with the contention that "America's quality media are now wading through the Slough of Despond. Our self-flagellation, handwringing and narcissism threaten our mission to act as counterweight to government power."
One of the challenges that he alludes to is that from bloggers, while observing that "The 'platform' - print, TV, Internet, telepathy, whatever - will change, but the public hunger for reliable information will grow." How reliable are blogs in your experience? Are there any that you could recommend?
Safire suggests that "Blogs will compete with op-ed columns for 'views you can use,' and the best will morph out of the pajama game to deliver serious analysis and fresh information, someday prospering with ads and subscriptions." The prospect of profit, he says "will bring bloggers in from the meanstream to the mainstream center of comment and local news coverage."
Seeing Safire's reference to "pajama game" led to some Googling, where I found that the American Dialect Society chose "pajamahadeen" as the most creative word of 2004, defining it as "bloggers who challenge and fact-check traditional media." Apparently, the term "bloggers" has enough acceptance to be used in a definition, and I assume that is also true of the term "Googling."
An added bonus of my search was finding out the Society's word of the year, more accurately phrases, is: "red state, blue state, purple state: together, a representation of the American political map."
Google also found references to the term "meanstream," generally referring to the media but it also seems to relate to a radio channel and a music group.
Let us know of any word usages you find particularly interesting.
One of the challenges that he alludes to is that from bloggers, while observing that "The 'platform' - print, TV, Internet, telepathy, whatever - will change, but the public hunger for reliable information will grow." How reliable are blogs in your experience? Are there any that you could recommend?
Safire suggests that "Blogs will compete with op-ed columns for 'views you can use,' and the best will morph out of the pajama game to deliver serious analysis and fresh information, someday prospering with ads and subscriptions." The prospect of profit, he says "will bring bloggers in from the meanstream to the mainstream center of comment and local news coverage."
Seeing Safire's reference to "pajama game" led to some Googling, where I found that the American Dialect Society chose "pajamahadeen" as the most creative word of 2004, defining it as "bloggers who challenge and fact-check traditional media." Apparently, the term "bloggers" has enough acceptance to be used in a definition, and I assume that is also true of the term "Googling."
An added bonus of my search was finding out the Society's word of the year, more accurately phrases, is: "red state, blue state, purple state: together, a representation of the American political map."
Google also found references to the term "meanstream," generally referring to the media but it also seems to relate to a radio channel and a music group.
Let us know of any word usages you find particularly interesting.
posted by John V at 9:00 AM
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