Scott Rosenberg described in his book “Say everything” the profiles of disfunctional people that started what we now now as blogs and how what started as an underground movement scaled to become a global phenomena, that seemed impossible even to its creators (with the exception of Evan Williams).
Rosenberg describes the technicality that made the phenomena possible and how the stream media wrongfully refused to give it credit or authority.
Now, that the industry of mass media, especially newspapers are shaking into a big crisis, the creators of weblogs and the earliest followers of this trend might be smiling. Clay Shirky argues that the mass media and newspapers are falling downhill because they were supported by a business model that worked out only by accident.
But what has happened? Why did so many people around the world decide to spend their time writing personal stories out in the open? Why did the phenomena sparkle so quickly and vastly around the world, even turning upside down governments? According to wikipedia, Iran is the third largest country of bloggers and that fact, amplified by the traditional media, has put a lot of pressure and global attention to the politics of that country.
I think that people have historically looked up the mass media not only for the need of news, but also and maybe most importantly looking for a place where identify themselves and to measure their status in comparison to others. The more democratic the world has become, the more people have had access to mass goods -such as food to put in their plates, but also to TV and satellite channels, the more they have grieved for recognition.
Mass media, on the contrary, with its intend of addressing the “important” issues, have left aside the voice, the faces and the experiences of the mayority of the people they consider their audience. In every country and mayor city of the western world, there is a newspaper that intends to cover “national” or “global” issues. People who have access to those media, often represents the elites of every field. Those few experts, government officials, sport players and show business celebrities are invested in authorities to the rest of their compatriots or, at least, to the audience of such mayor newspapers, radio or tv stations. When do you see regular citizens being interviewed, in other words, recognized? Mostly in natural disasters, crimes, and more currently in reality shows.
So, when the web geeks invented a tool that any grandmother could learn how to use to tell their “important” things, not just to the circles of their relatives and friends, but to people that knew nothing about them before they wrote their blogs, the vast masses of people that had never appeared in a TV show, found the instant satisfaction of being recognized. They realized they do not have to wait for a reporter to knock on their door to ask them The Question they have waited to answer all their lives. They just turn on their computers and type.
