Arieanna asks, what should we be calling this thing I’m doing right now?
I’ve noticed myself using the word “content” far too often in my “posts” and it’s suddenly occurred to me that this is not such a good thing. I didn’t write an article, just a post. I didn’t write, even. I blogged. And my writing is nothing significant, just some content. Some filler. In reflection, this is what the words sound like. To an outsider, they don’t reflect well on what we do.
I hadn’t actually considered the possibility that terms like blogging, post and content downplay the importance of this kind of writing. At the moment, that might not actually be the case; blogging is The New Hotness in the business world, and people who turn up their noses at the word “writer” break out the chequebooks when they hear “content provider”.
Still, over the long run, I suspect Arieanna’s going to be right. (Remember how before the dot-bust it was “e”-this and “e”-that? Try selling a client on naming anything of theirs “e”-something. Just try. The New Hotness becomes the old ickiness mighty quickly.)
In the shorter term, I’d be interested in whether this kind of terminology has the usual effect of jargon: to shut out the uninitiated and allow the priesthood to communicate with itself in splendid isolation.
Does talking about “blogging”, “posts” and “content” intimidate the very people that the self-publishing revolution hopes to enlist?
Or is there something about those terms that’s a little friendlier than the ones they replace? I’ve talked to people who are terrified of the idea of writing for publication, even self-publication. Writing (TM) is something that Writers (TM) do, while blogging might feel more like a casual conversation.
It might well be that a divide emerges between people who just want to participate in that casual conversation, and will continue to call it blogging, and those who want to be held to a more exacting standard — and who want it to come with a whole ‘nother nomenclature.
OK, I think of the terms “blogging” and “post” to be different from the term “content”.
The first two seem to be tied to this blog “phenom”. They partalliy describe new ways of looking at writting in the electronic agr — chronologically chunked out in partitioned parcels. Yes, it is similar to journal or diary writing, but it also differs in that there is the immediacy of public sharing attached to it — as well as the potential for subsiquent interaction — that the former writing methods don’t share. This is, to an extent, a new way of writting; new terminology for it does seem, at least partially, justified.
Also, it seems to simplify and uninhibit the prossess. I’m sure there are lots of people who blog that don’t consider themselves writers in the conventional sence. “Writing” for many is the act of producing a story, or narrative. Its a proccess. It requires dicipline and skill. A writer, in many peoples minds, is one who excels at these things. To say one “writes” conjurs up images of novella’s and essays and things that people ernestly discuss on late night CBC talk shows. A blogger is just someone who plops down random thoughts on a website from time to time. No big woop. Much more pedestrian, and much more accessable. One doesn’t need to be a writer to blog.
Now the term “content” is much more insidious. It’s the business side of this creeping in. It comoditizes the proccess and attempts to turn it into something marketable. It’s the same as calling what sports teams do as “product”. Its what happens when focus groups get involved. It’s the realization that you are not just blogging for the hell of it, but delivering something to an audience. More and more, blogging also seems to be becoming the hip new way to connect with your audience; or constituants; or customers. Its one more way to spin the message and sneak in the sales pitch. It’s the new Guerrila advertizing. It yet another co-opting of sub-culter into the marketing machine.
However, a kernal of integrity still beats under that facsade. There is still a personal connection found in the blog world. a true sincerity under it all. Those who do this blog thing well are able to dance that fine line between the personal satisfaction and the need to satisfy their “readership” — and thankfully many people are; thinking of blog posts as content — especially if you’re worrying about that content’s quality — may just be what differentiates those who simply blog, and those who actually write their blog entries.