The Blog and Media Wars

We're still working it all out.

When I first started College Football Resource I was on the "defense of blogs" train.  I still am, but I've realized over time the media's quite useful and important in helping me do my job here.  There's no more frenzied hopping about from these parts, as I know there's calmer ways to work about this.  The Pundit Roundups are a way to shine a weekly light on the good, the bad and the inbetween of notable college football media.  I respect them, hopefully they respect us.

The prevailing attitude in the blog world at large I think is one of this blog vs. media tension being far from resolved.  The post linked above is a solid guide to how the "decorum" thing works in blog world.  As much as possible, we try to credit others.  In contrast, I think part of the FanHouse discussion was that in the media world, giving someone credit is an admission you got scooped (oh no!).  We're often speaking two different languages, working from two different cultures and like real world issues, a devide exists that needs to be bridged.

The sooner bloggers realize that's how it goes in media land, hopefully the less hopped-up we'll be about those unfortunate moments when good work gets indirect credit (or no credit at all) as something on "the internet" instead of noting its creator (see: MZone).  Or there's those unfortunate incidents where spoof and satire are reported as fact.

At the same time, the media guys need to come down from that perch once and for all and understand the give-and-take of our world.

Everyone is still learning and mistakes are being made on both sides.  Sometimes I forget where I first found a story and fail to give credit, or don't backtrack far enough to the original source who deserves credit as much as the person who found it from someone else who found it from the original source.  These things are the challenges for which it'll take a while to work everything out.  I enjoy that the discussion is out there as we catch the various media mistakes.  There's a lesson for everyone each time these things happen.