Sunday, December 7

Slops from the tea-cup - new media and damp paper

Unsurprisingly the latest TGO Magazine (Jan 09) carries an in depth piece on the OMM 2008 media storm and fall-out.

Unsurprisingly? Well this what we expect as part of our regular monthly fix on outdoor matters as provided by the sparse outdoor press coverage available from within the UK. Good stuff - reporting on our own particular world interest. Which after all is why we continue to buy the magazines.

Naturally, as is to be expected of a magazine with the hard won & admirable reputation of the TGO editorial team, the article is well researched, informative and considerate of the issues raised at the time; And potential consequences.

But why the total lack of any mention concerning the on-line contribution on that weekend and in the days following?

Consider Grough & Sleepmonsters immediate on-line reports as they rooted about for the facts behind the fiction.

Those various pieces & reflections from UK bloggers about the event including those actively involved.

Or how about the two and a quarter hours of Podcast Bob's audio. An essential two piece report firstly as an OMM challenger, in amongst the thick of it all. And the subsequent and even handed follow up interviewing many of the key players.

Indeed this blog first flagged the news early on the Saturday evening as news first broke, and by the following Monday - Oct 26 - was already tying up the loose ends reflecting on where next for the OMM Event.

I've yet to see Trail or Country Walking's reports on the subject, so please don't regard any of this as an attack on the good offices of TGO in particular. Perversely I'm sat here asking myself the question 'has TGO created its own 'media storm' in covering another?'

But .......... and there's always a but it seems ............ it raises concerns as to another example of the divergence between traditional print and on-line medias.

Watchful of the developments in this area, as those regular reader of this blog may be aware, I had considered that a complimentary relationship between the two camps was developing.

However this example of such a flagrant ignorance of new media's involvement leads me to consider that our paths are now starting to diverge, despite earlier encouraging signs of a mutual co-existence.

Somehow, if this remains typical of 'print' regard for 'on-line' I don't think that will be good for either party in the longer term.

Sadly a loss for both sides. But ...and there's that damning word again... as King Canute once bemusedly demonstrated to his courtiers - don't try to hold back the inevitable. It'll make you look a little damp. And perhaps a little silly.

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Comments:
Good point John. It seems to me that print media like TGO could actually partner with the blogging community. Mind you the Metro found a blogger who had a negative perspective on the OMM on the Monday. They must have searched hard to find it!
 
The way I see it, is that people who follow forums, blogs and podcasts are more up to date than people who simply read the printed word. Television has dumbed down to the extent that it is as senile a medium as the "old medium" of the printed word.

If "The Internet is like television, only better", then television promised to be "like radio, only better". And yet there is more truth on the radio than there is on the idiot box, where the extra dimension seems to just mean an extra cost rather than the extra opportunity of improved communication.

The people running the television care not a jot about the Internet, that is clear by the fact that the BBC has less technology programmes now than when I was growing up. It may also explain why I have only one tv prog on my recorder over the whole weekend, and spent one evening watching a week's worth of recording. if the medium is the message, the the message is "television is irrelevant".

Sorry, what was the question?
 
We've been here before! I don't think TGO has really got of grips with new media and the blogosphere. Cameron is still of the mindset that it is competition and somehow not serious.

We talk a lot about comunity but I don't know how you can cover that event without referring to Bob's stuff. A reference to the link for those who want to know more would be in order I think.
 
I thought missing any reference to Bob's work was at least a major gaffe. At worst something far naughtier
 
OMG! It's a conspiracy, big bad Cameron has it in for the bloggers. Worst of all, he didn't mention sacred, holy Bob.

Howell, Hee, you're full of shit.
 
The anonymous id says it all.

Such a subtly argued point - it adds so much to the discussion.

Ho hum.
 
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