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Mapping the Blogosphere
dominique_cimafranca writes "Discover Magazine has an interesting article on mapping the blogosphere, reporting on the work of Matthew Hurst. Hurst put together a 3D map of the blogosphere, with bright spots represent sites with the highest number of links and isolated islands represent closed communities like LiveJournal. The study also identifies other islands like sociopolitical commentary, gadget hounds, sports fans, and, um, porn blogs."
I think the problem came when blogs began to be associated with "journalism". Everything went wrong when journalists started to think they're inane personal ramblings were worth sharing with the world, and ordinary people starting thinking that their lives were somehow worth reporting to others.
It might not have gone that way, you know. Blogs could have stayed simple sites for sharing information about one's life with those who care and journalists could have presented their work on news and opinion sites which maintained journalistic standards. Instead, we get this catch-all phrase "blogs" to describe everything from a site that reports news, with fact-checking and editorial management to some Right-Wing half-assed history professor at a Christian "college" who thinks he's the new Edward R. Murrow, except he hates niggers, Mexicans and Islamoathiests who want to blow up his SUV and rape his wife and daughter, to some 17 year-old who writes about his WoW prowess, metal bands and how he runs linux on his Mom's computer.
It's really a shame, too, because now the word "blog" means exactly nothing, and newspapers, radio and television networks are racing each other to the bottom of the journalistic barrel, touting empty-headed opinions, fact-less reportage and basically linking to each other and thinking their work is done. So instead of a new Edward R. Murrow, we get an old Matt Drudge, who, let's face it, was useless to begin with, but is now the gawdfather of a crop of j-school dropouts for whom getting a press credential is the goal of their life, but who believe nothing and mean even less.
It's one of the ways our leader was able to start the Iraq War like a frat boy on summer break who throws a party at his parents house while they're away on a cruise. Everybody who could have made a difference by exposing the cock-up that was going to take place was too busy linking to Matt Drudge and trying to figure out how to use blogspot. Now they are all pretending it was somebody else who dropped the ball, wondering if they could somehow collect all their blog posts from the past 5 years and publish them as a book. I'm betting they will.
You are welcome on my lawn.