More on RSS and the reproduction of the mainstream world.
When I look around at the most subscribed to blogs in Bloglines, and not coincidentally many of the new breed in the Technoriati Top 100, I see the effects of RSS and 'consumption-based reading' -- I see how so many real bloggers who used write in a real, human voice have slipped off the charts, replaced by 'conglomerate' news blogs like gizmodo, engadget, wired news, etc. -- all well written, but not so much blogs as relentlessly updated zines -- and I realize that THESE are the blogs that mainstream journalists who cover similar or related beats are subscribing to. That's where a large portion of their readership is coming from--and with authority comes the masses, following suit.
With so many in the mainstream news business subscribing and linking to, and getting their news from, these new breed of super-news blogs, what happens to the individual voices? And how do we keep from becoming a replication of MSM, 'cept faster.
RSS is a news engine. It has nothing to do with blogging. Now if only some tools for conversation-based blogging would help us sift through the noise, maybe we could still hear ourselves talk. or listen. as the case may be.
Tags: blogging, tech, aggregation, RSS, Atom, Bloglines, MSM = Powered by Qumana
