Buzzing Howie Kurtz's Buzzometer

Reader Comments From The Fray:


Right now the simple fact is that online journalism is an insiders' game of tag for the most part, with much of the interesting flow of info, deals, contacts, gossip etc. focusing on the players in the inside journalism world. This is a yawn to the "eyeballs" who would support online journalism as a more serious venture.

The biggest obstacle to the success of online journalism is what the hardware people call the "form factor." You can't carry Slate on a bus or read it in the bathroom. You won't read it at the breakfast table. You don't plop down on the couch to unwind and flip on Slate for some background music. You can't read it in bed before you go to sleep. You can't read it at the lunch counter. These are the venues where most quotidian journalism coexists with the appetites and inflection points of the ordinary human day.

When broadband wireless internet becomes as common as literacy in the nineteenth century or transistor sets in the sixties and seventies, you will see the transfer of power from the one-to-many to the many-to-many media. I will retire in 2012 and that will probably be the launch date of a Slate that you can read with your toast or hot water bottle.

Until then it will mostly function as a watering hole for the pros which will be kibbitzed by the second tier of info workers and cranks, just like the old bars across the street from the daily papers.

--Zeitguy

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To Zeitguy:

One thing that online journalism brings is what we're in right now. The fact that you were able to post your well-said response in real-time testifies to that. In print, radio, TV, etc, the only responses to editorials or points of opinion is the occasional letter to the editor about a day or week old issue. In The Fray, you have the chance to respond and give your two cents in about 10 minutes. I think there are some posters that knock the online journalists flat, and they aren't even paid to do it! They're just writing from the passion of their heart in the timespan of the 15 minutes they spend online every morning checking the news. I agree that it's nice to plop down on the futon with a copy of Time or Newsweek and make fun of the latest politics, but I find almost as enjoyable popping into The Fray and skewering some poor poster.

--Number Jonny 5

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