http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-wk-cover1dec01,1,4042809,full.story
In a very well reasoned piece, Scott Martelle takes an in depth look at local bloggers and what it means for our city. It's chock full of tons of good, cool stuff, so read it! I'll just quote from one of his more interesting sections:
COVER STORY
The new faces of the city
In the blogosphere, stereotypes (Hollywood, palms, beaches) are augmented by musings on politics, neighborhoods and relationships.
By Scott Martelle, Times Staff Writer
...... Blogs are best known for their ability to bend political discourse and unravel shoddy journalism. But some experts think the blogs' collage of life in Los Angeles - and other cities -could eventually recalibrate our sense of place, redefining not only how others see us but also how we see ourselves.
The local blogosphere is not quite there yet, but "it's probably close to a critical mass of people who could make a difference," says John Horrigan, research director for the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which has found through surveys that one in four adult Internet surfers reads blogs. "That is a sizable portion, even when it's still a minority." (Still, blogging has yet to break out of its relatively small corner of the Internet. Horrigan said Pew surveys found that only about 5% of all adults contribute to blogs.)
Two points. First, I fully agree that blogs do give far more of a sense of LA than the LA Times ever manages to do - though articles such Steve Hymon's today (and more on that latter) are a step in the right direction and as for the part about us exposing 'shoddy journalism' - like I'm going to argue with that?
Second, the notion that while 25% of all adults read blogs - only 5% of them contribute to them means that blogs have yet to break out of their small corner of the internet is, to me, an incorrect reading of the facts. That statistic means that one out of five people who read blogs post comments on them. Compare that to the number of people who read newspapers and who write in to them - even on their websites. No contest! Plus excluding discussing the habits of those who are not adults, ignores the habits of future media consumers.
Lastly, LA Cowboy was listed at the end under Media/Celebrity Blogs - and with a very clever tagline, thank you - but it is also one of only TWO blogs in that section with no clickable link. The other is LA Times critic... Patterico! Coincidence - or CONSPIRACY?
You decide! (UPDATE - Links now fixed!) NO! WAIT! LINKS - NOT FIXED!!
When I followed Kevin's link - that part of the LAT website has working links but when you to through the front page and hit read - they still don't work.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-wk-cover1dec01,1,4042809,full.story
OK - now back to where the good kind of pluging took place, linkless as it is...
MEDIA/CELEBRITYLA
Observed: Former Times staffer Kevin Roderick's detached view of L.A. media and politics. The site for insiders. http://www.LAObserved.com Defamer: A snarky view of media and celebrity culture. http://www.Defamer.com FishbowlLA: Part of the Media Bistro family of blog sites, it offers a daily (though slow-posting) overview of L.A.-centric media stories. http://www.MediaBistro.com/FishbowlLA LA Cowboy: Writer Brady Westwater unloads his six-shooter on the media, usually The Times. LACowboy.BlogSpot.comPatterico's Pontifications: Patrick Frey, a Los Angeles County prosecutor, takes on the press. Patterico.comPop Bytes: Gushy takes on the latest dish; the star-struck fan's alternative to Defamer. http://www.PopBytes.com
OK - this is getting a little weird - even by LA Times standards of misfunction. When I do a search through the front page - I get the above. A blurb and a faulty link. But when I access the exact same story through the Calendar Section, I get no blurb - but a working link, and I also don't get the cool blue most of the other bloggers get.
Now I assume there is a reason for all this. But... I really don't care about it. Just fix the damn thing!
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1 comment:
it looks like the version on latimes.com doesn't have working links for the URLs that didn't include 'http://' at the front, but calenderlive.com had working links in the sidebar.
probably just a side-effect of whatever archaic print-to-web mechanisms they have going on.
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