Blog Your Way to Beat-dom

Pick me! Pick me! An interesting article I came across in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago said that blogging can be a useful tool to help you get a new job, as employers have begun to scan the blogosphere searching for potential employees. So the article on networking was right: “Human beings are, and always have been, diversely motivated beings. We act instrumentally, but also noninstrumentally. We act for material gain, but also for psychological well-being and gratification, and for social connectedness.” And blogs happen to fulfill all of those goals.

The material gain comes from having something tangible that potential employers can assess (although this presents a danger as well, as it means employers can see everything you say, so if they happen to disagree, you’re doomed.) The psychological well-being comes from having an outlet to rant, rave, and ramble nonsensically about whatever it is you care about that day. And the social connectedness comes in as people read each other’s blogs and share their thoughts on the web. In addition, interesting sorts of blogger friendships have begun to emerge, as bloggers that address the same topic or have the same opinions offer links to each other’s sites in their sidebar. One example is in the sports sector of the blogosphere. Yankee bloggers offer links to fellow Yankee bloggers, sports bloggers offer links to other sports bloggers etc. Even more intriguing is the dialogue that goes on between them, as bloggers reference the other blogs in their posts. A sort of sports blogging network or community has emerged, and these people now have friendships with people they have potentially never met. On top of that, faithful readers of the blog get to feel like they are part of the group as well, even if they have no idea who is sitting behind the computer screen.

(Interesting aside: the rise in celebrity bloggers. The NBA has tapped a few of their star players to write blogs for the NBA’s official website throughout the playoffs, and actress Alyssa Milano has started a blog that appears on the MLB’s website because she is apparently a die-hard LA Dodger fan. But wait, I thought blogs were supposed to give the little guy a voice? The ones that didn’t have access to a printing press or anybody that would write up their thoughts and print them in the tabloids. Some bloggers have reacted quite negatively to stars “encroaching” on their medium, saying they already have enough ways to get their message out and be heard.)

Back to blogging, employment, and sports. So the article in the Wall Street Journal got me thinking about sports writers. Normally, people have a favorite columnist or “beat writer” they turn to for coverage of their favorite sports team. (George King, NY Post and Peter Abrhams, Journal News for the New York Yankees). An interesting new trend has emerged, however. A sports journalism professor wrote that “Well, here's the question about SportsBlogs Nation: Could it turn out to be a Craigslist for sports columns? If not SBNation, then maybe AOL Sports' FanHouse. Because you don't necessarily need the local newspaper. You just need a local, devoted fan who can write well.” SportsBlogs Nation, AOL FanHouse, and many other sites like it unite sports bloggers from around the country, making it easy to find somebody blogging on you’re favorite team. These people are normally die-hard fans quite devoted to the sport, so the coverage is deep, insightful, and relevant, meaning that you don’t necessarily need the newspaper beat writer because these fans are offering the same type of coverage: for free.

Newspapers have responded by having the beat writers blog themselves, which has turned out to be a brilliant idea. While some of the blogs are shallow one liners and have flopped, other more devoted columnists have created blogs that are flourishing. The blogs give the writers a place to address the sport more in-depth than they can in the paper, as they can assume that they are writing to a far narrower audience. They write casual, insightful, and entertaining blogs just like regular bloggers, yet have the resources of a big-time newspaper behind them, so they get to see batting practice and go to the press conferences.

On top of that, the two different types of bloggers have begun to co-mingle. The Average Joe fan blogger talks about the beat-writer’s blog in his postings, and the beatwriters have begun to do the same, referencing the premier fan bloggers out on the net. Entire blogging communities have developed around certain sports and teams, all of which the article on network described beautifully.

Speaking of piracy...

I just came across this news story about a sports-radio talk show host named Colin Cowherd who is apparently known for stealing content from blogs around the internet and presenting it as his own material on the show.

A few blogs have called Cowherd out for his plagiarizing (the ugly cousin of piracy). It seems that to show his "superiority" he told his listeners to flood one such blog "The Big Lead," with hits, causing the server to shut down. The blog was off line for two days because of the technical failure, yet Cowherd will face no punishment even though his action is beyond reproach. Why, you might ask? Well, because he works for a big time company (ESPN.) Since he works for ESPN, nobody will call him out on stealing opinions for the blogosphere or being a jackass and shutting one down.

Now imagine if a blog were to steal one of their broadcaster's opinions? ESPN would be livid, and since they are a big company, you can be sure that a lawsuit would ensue. And if a blogger ever did such a thing to a big media channel or retaliated by shutting down ESPN's website? Perish the thought.

What this really is is just another example of traditional "big" media being petrified of the little guy. Cowherd's job is being threatened as more and more people realize they can get the same rants or raves for free on the blogosphere. When people get scared, they do stupid things, like try to shut the competition down and rebel against the blogosphere.

It will be amusing to see where this goes, because I know sports fans, and most are pretty dedicated people. Pair that type of personality with the blogger's enthusiasm and this writer's apparent displeasure with authority...this could get interesting.

It’s not Piracy if You’re in the Navy…

Or why it’s alright for the big companies to do it, but not little old me.

Now I am not against copyright law by any means, but it seems outrageous to me that the TV networks and other big companies bemoan the evils of piracy when it is the very thing that founded their entire industry. Then again, I suppose I should expect such hypocrisy from those in positions of power. I mean just consider the metaphor here: pirate- somebody who robs at sea. Yet if the gentlemen happened to be a sailor in the navy looting and plundering the enemy’s ship…no worries. So once you have power and authority, I guess whatever you do is no longer piracy.

Which is why corporations have no problem taking content from us and stealing from the little guy. They won’t hesitate to screw you in a second if you don’t happen to read before signing the dotted line. Networks, recording studios, big media companies- they can all take our content in a second, but if we want to share some of their’s? Forget about it.

While the fact that they don’t want us sharing the things we like with other friends that might then buy the content as well silly, it is the loss in creativity that this virtual lockdown creates that is the far greater travesty. I linked to a particularly well done Jimi Hendrix/ Jay-Z mashup earlier in a blog post earlier in the semester, yet the track cannot be purchased or even obtained for free from anywhere because it is considered illegal. It might be one of my favorite songs of all time, even though it isn’t an original, yet for me to listen to it in my car is such a hassle that I only hear it sometimes when I sit down at the computer. That discourages creativity, prevents good music from being released, and will stop us from going forward. Eventually everything is going to be done (witness the repetitive boy-bands…you can only make the same bubble-gum noise so many different ways before you run out of different note combinations and clichéd lyrics) Then what? Well, right now we’d be left with nothing, since things like mashups are discouraged, and actually considered illegal.

I can understand individual artists getting angry if somebody were to copy their work or steal from them. I can understand companies getting angry when the piracy isn’t something like peer to peer sharing but legitimate theft, or if somebody were to burn a pirated CD and then sell it for profit. There are plenty of instances where piracy is legitimately unacceptable. Yet if companies were smart, they would start figuring out ways to incorporate “piracy” as they define it into their business strategy…using p2p networks as a way to market or mashups as a way to get new creative material.