Comment isn’t free, but my work seems to be
Posted on Nov 18 2006 | Tagged as: Blogistan, Media
Two things to comment on from head of BBC News Interactive Peter Clifton’s (delightfully sweary) guest lecture on thursday:1) He mentioned that political editor Nick Robinson not only posts several times a day on his Newslog (I’d have said “Newsblogâ€, but there you go…) but also takes the time to respond to questions, criticisms and whatnot.
That seems pretty rare from traditional media men. It certainly doesn’t happen much here. The principal differences are probably: Robinson works for possibly the most-respected news organisation in the world, funded by the licencepayer, and feels a duty to explain; he’s doing it voluntarily, whereas the Guardian’s columns get copied to the “blog-o-site†(Brooker, 2006) whether they like it or not (mostly not, it has to be said); and that he’s not a professional opinion-giver whose views have become overvalued, both financially and in terms of stature.
2) Clifton emphasised that we have to be willing to continue to work for free.
(As did several of the staff at the Guardian Student Media Conference the other week, I’m told. If I discover that one of them was Polly Toynbee I think I’ll die of irony, given that she’s the ultimate proponent of the minimum wage, the legally enforced overpayment of the least productive labour (this being the diametric opposite: if our work’s worth doing, it’s worth paying for); and of the need for increased social mobility, whereas this reinforces journalism’s middle-classness as only those who can afford to work for free can get a foot in the door - particularly after shelling out five grand for this diploma.)
I’d rather not. Yet I’m doing it right now - what’s blogging if not writing for free?
(See also Gary of CoffeeandPC’s comment on his final blog post.)
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