Comments on: CyberSalon: It’s Not the Writing that Matters

By: Kent

Kent — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 03:08:00 +0000

I think eventually the middlemen will be filters and search engines.In the meantime, there will still be traditional media gatekeepers, but the gate will shift from paper to online.For example, I am not one of those who believe that blogs will ever replace traditional sources for typical news. I don’t want to get my straight news from a blog. I still read the Houston Chronicle, but I do it online.There will always be a place for an old-media equivalent for straight news.But those old media equivalents will be competing with a ton of other sources, some of them local, for the extended news (op-ed, culture, tech, music, etc.) eyeballs.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 02:59:00 +0000

And now there will be … drumroll … new gatekeepers.That is, I think this sentence is not quite right:“It’s about the loss of control of the distribution of the writing”I believe it would be better as “It’s about the *shifts* *in* *control* of the distribution of the writing”But this part is very wrong: “There is a lessening of the need for a middleman to direct content to us”There’s the same need, and still middlemen – how could it be otherwise, with so many pieces of writing competing for a finite attention pool?But *who* will be the those middlemen – that’s what these discussions are always circling around.

By: Kent

Kent — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 02:10:00 +0000

Exactly. Just like the record labels used to be the gatekeepers between musicians and listeners.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 00:28:00 +0000

Hmm … “It’s the control over the distribution of the writing.”One might say … in a word … gatekeeping!