Colin Farrington: I would like to see a civilized reaction against the alleged power of the ‘blog’

CIPR director general Colin Farrington has posted an article on the website Profile-Extra saying he thinks blogs are boring, that he'd like to see some action against their alleged power, and he's generally not that keen on them. "Can they really become a powerful medium?" he asks.

Sorry, what was that last bit?

Did Colin miss the fact that the highest profile blogs have more readers than many national newspapers? Or that the discussions on blogs break tomorrow's news before it happens, and are changing the way the press gathers its stories. Perhaps he hasn't read about the damage done to brands like Dell, Kryptonite or Cillit Bang because of blogs, or how blogging doubled sales for wine firm Stormhoek. 

Blogging has brought about a massive adoption of complimentary applications such as podcasts, vlogging, MySpace, and wider user-generated content (UGC) like YouTube and Digg. It will be UGC which we will see overtaking blogging. And when the BBC releases its new website, UGC will go beyond popular text-based blogging. the UGC revolution will be massive, and totally change the shape of the media.

Colin's not sure still, stating that we need more well thought out blogs. I would suggest Colin's advisors check out all of the daily papers and they will see plenty of well thought out blogging. Or just take a look at some of the multi-million earning pro-blog empires like Gawker or Weblogs Inc.

Colin ends his article saying CIPR president Tony Bradley is a blogging pioneer. I'm not sure he actually looked at Tony's blog. No offense to Tony, your blog is tidy and reads ok, it just isn't pioneering. With blogging having been around well over five years, setting up a basic version of something being done in really innovative ways all around us can't class as pioneering. Pioneering is Comment is Free, or BBC Backstage.

Simon Collister noticed the Colin Farrington article this morning, and posted a response pretty quick, slating it. Antony Mayfield responded by reminding us that Colin's old, and maybe doesn't get it all, still thinking typewriters and telegrams for his press releases. This is probably all mind blowing to him. But most readers are wondering, as Rainier's Stephen Waddington is, "how someone in an industry leadership position could be so out of touch?"

Comments

[Ian Betteridge]

Fiona, I'm going by the link that Drew posted - there's no standfirst there. Reading his article, it bares no relation to that standfirst, which isn't surprising given that it will have been written as a teaser by an enterprising sub and not by Colin.

I'm sorry, but I still thing that Drew's post is knee-jerk. It's putting words into Colin's mouth, it's making assumptions about his position, and it's creating a straw man. That's all the classic signs of someone wanting to say something, and pinning it on something someone else has said.

Sorry Drew - I'm not really blaming you. But blogging as a medium often shapes messages into this kind of form. Which is precisely why we need better blogging.

[David Phillips FCIPR]

Colin has a great sense of humour. Today, he writes:
Blogging is simply a form of vanity publishing. No wonder most content is instantly forgettable. And does that which survive really have a beneficial impact on society, on political discourse, giving a voice to those who genuinely can’t be heard as some proponents claim.....

[uco]

archy it i, and i like you!