Newsweek's Emotional Crisis

Blogs can be many things -- just like a magazine can be anything from a underground punk 'zine to the Atlantic Monthly. Newsweek is practicing "faint praise" towards a format it recognizes as a threat with this column about college bloggers.

The columnist simplifies the phenomenon to the point of idiocy, and implies that blogs are simply public diaries of personal rants and reflections. Yes, blogs are used that way, and self expression is a perfectly justifiable use of the format. (Although it gets tedious when 19-year-olds assume their lives are always infinitely fascinating.)

Recall, only about 10-12 years ago people asked "why use email?" Now it's exploited for every type of communication. The business world would collapse without it; but email is also used for diplomacy, seductions, debate, tirades, porno, and personal minutiae.

Weblogs are similar. The article Newsweek cannot bring itself to write is about the massive changes to the media that are partially the result of more journalistic blogs. But as usual, there's no shortage of expertise when it comes to misinterpreting new technology.

UPDATE: BusinessWeek turns in a more fearless analysis of blogs as a nascent advertising market.