Cutting edge?

BLOG
Function: noun
Definition: an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log
Example: Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.
Etymology: shortened form of Weblog
Usage: blog, blogged, blogging v, blogger n

The cutting edge of journalism, the new breed of media. Or so they're calling it.

Blogging has taken off in a big way, to the extent that it is starting to be taken seriously by the mainstream media. Recently bloggers were even invited to the White House and various other functions relating to the election.

Why is this? In a way, I suppose it's a pretty simple concept - a way for people to offer free, immediate content-delivery, free of the encumbrances and overheads of the large media megacorps, free of the print deadlines, free of the day-late articles of the paper media. A nobel concept. Admittedly there are problems, however.

Audience share is the main one. In a time where there are still a limited amount of newspapers and (to an extent) television channels, then there is still a fair sized audience for them all to split. However, when you get to the internet, there are billions of "channels" so it is pretty difficult to attract a new audience.

My main problem is this: complete and utter lack of editorial oversight. In any capacity. Authoring, layout, bias - everything.

I was on a random blog-surf this afternoon (may have just coined a new term there), and you would not believe the crap that I came across. I looked at 50 blogs, for a measure of balance, and how many do you think I found worth reading?

Close, but add one to that guess. That's correct, one. To be quite honest that's because the author had left a post on DeGaS' site and I looked at his first. The rest of them were shite. Pure, unadulterated shite.

The particular thing I noticed was the layouts. Most of these sites looked like they had been designed by a 3 year old on a vodka bender. There were .midi files everywhere, scrolling frames within scrolling frames, tag-boards, crosshair cursors and colour combinations to make your eyes bleed. If the majority of sites are designed to be viewed with IE, these sites need to be viewed in a different room.

Apart from the full-on redneck views of a majority of them, the sort of people who thought Hitler was just misunderstood, they were just bland as hell. And a lot of them had stacks of unnecessary capitals, a BiT lIkE thIS, which really gets on my tits.

If you have a good blog, keep on it, I really think they can be a good thing - but if you fill any of the categories above, please do Darwin a favour and top yourselves. Many thanks.