The New Media and the Old Media.

Much is said of the new media providing an alternative to the old media. Blogs have become a valued alternative to newspapers. Yet, it is not as simple as providing an alternative. An event a few days ago, leads me to think that the new media and the old media are interdependent. They feed off each other.

I noted, a couple of days ago, in my surfing, that a leading Danish daily newspaper had quoted my blog. They termed me a "commentator", and quoted several lines from one of my posts, to provide them with a key insight for their article. In a way, I was impressed with their intellectual courtesy. Instead of just lifting my insight (as some, no doubt, have done), they credited me with my own words and built the latter half of the article around my view.

To me, it seems that the new media (or at least from the evidence of my blog, as an example of it) have come to be sufficiently respected by the old media, that they are now considered a valued SOURCE of material, to be used in traditional articles. This is a healthy development for it increases the diversity of material available for use by the traditional media and should lead to an enriched media, therefore.

As for me, it felt odd to be quoted in a national newspaper, in this way. It made it clear that they thought of me as someone whose words were sufficiently weighty as to be so quoted. Often, I have seen newspapers refer to others, in this manner, by quoting from their work. However, it is a different matter when the one quoted is oneself. It made me realize that my writing is beginning to have an impact. People all over the world are reading it. Some are thinking about it. Others are even writing about it. I am, in a sense, becoming a successful online writer. This is a gratifying development because the online writer (or blogger) has a freedom to write as they please, that no other writers in history have ever had. It is rewarding, to see that my thoughts are sufficiently regarded, in some quarters, to now be used as a source of commentary.

In reality, there is no new media or old media - there is only words and ideas and their transmission. Both "media" are engaged in the same business of transmission of thought. What differs, however, is that the "new media" are much more democratic and open: all have access to them. In this way, they better reflect the ideals of a democratic world. Furthermore, they lower the barriers to entry into public discourse by allowing all a voice. This is a marvellous freedom, which has never truly been before.

By quoting my work, the Danish newspaper did something else. It acknowledged the worth of the new media and the whole blogging enterprise. It said that this new democratic communication mode is worthy of respect. So, though a small thing, in a way - the mere quoting of words from a blog post - it is also much bigger than it seems, for it shows that the new media are truly a form of media that has reached maturity and achieved respect. It is not only a genuine alternative to the old media, but a complement to it too.

For the curious, the passage the Danish newspaper quoted (in translation) was on the subject of modern fame:

"Once a person becomes famous that, in itself, is enough to justify attention directed towards them. Jade Goody is better known than many of much greater merit, but she receives the attention precisely and only because she has already received attention. That is it. There is nothing more to it. Jade Goody is worthy because she is known, but she is not known because she is worthy."

I have highlighted in black, the part of the passage that they focussed most upon.

I should note that this is not the first time that my online writings have been quoted and referenced. Yet, it is the first time that a traditional media outlet has done so, to my knowledge. I found it surprising, actually, because it meant that someone, far away in Denmark, had gone to all the trouble of reading my blog, thinking about it, and building part of an article around it.

I have but one pair of eyes, so if you notice other instances of my work being quoted, I would be interested to hear of it...so please mail me or comment below, if you spot such references.

Thanks.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Who owns a blog?

Who owns a blog? You might think this a funny question, but recently, I have come to observe that the READERS think they own a blog. I shall explain.

Not infrequently, I receive comments from readers, either approving of certain kinds of articles, and requesting more of them, or disapproving of certain kinds of articles and requesting fewer of them. Sometimes, however, I detect a proprietorial tone in the comments that seems to be saying: "I am the reader, it is MY blog experience and so it MUST be this way." I find this attitude both odd, and intriguing.

In my experience, bloggers don't make any money from blogging. They write because they have something they wish to say. In this sense, the blog is the ultimate writer's medium - in that it is written purely out of the free will of the writer, usually for no other purpose than expressing his or her thoughts. It is not a monetary situation, as other writing situations are. No matter how well I write, I will not make any money out of it. No one is going to pay me for a particularly thoughtful or insightful blog post. Indeed, the only thing that keeps blog writers writing is the fact that most of them love to write...otherwise, why bother?

The readers who make demands upon me, to write in particular ways, do not seem to understand my position as a blogger. There is no compensation for me, to write, at all. There most probably never will be. I could blog for the rest of my life (which I may do) and I will make nothing at all out of it, in monetary terms. I will, however, have done one thing: I will have expressed my views on things that matter to me. I will have inscribed a portrait of my self, in some indirect way, in how I write and in what I choose to write. I will, therefore, have expressed myself, day by day, year by year. That is all it will do. There will never be a tangible financial reward for having done so.

Readers who think they own the blog are thinking only of themselves - of what they want and of their needs. This is, I suppose, an easy trap to fall into. Nothing, I suppose, could be easier, for some people, than thinking only of themselves. However, they should realize that the blogger is someone else, whom they will never meet and who DOES NOT KNOW THEIR CONCERNS. The blogger does not write to please a particular individual for then they become a writer for hire, as it were, even if no payment is made. A blogger writes because there is something of interest to them in that moment: it is an expression of the thoughts of the present. Therefore, to demand of the blogger that they write in a particular way and of particular subject matter, is to demand that the blogger change, that the blogger should become someone else. In fact, it is a demand that the blogger cease to be a blogger and become a writer for hire.

If a blogger is true to themselves, they will, over time, cover all subjects and areas that are natural to them. There will, in that spectrum of articles, be material that pleases many people. However, no blogger should be required to focus on a particular type of article, from that repertoire, since that would be to distort the truth of themselves, it would be to slant it, in an unbalanced fashion, in a particular direction.

If a reader likes one article type that the blogger writes, then the reader should be patient enough to let the blogger write such articles, as and when they are moved to do so and read their other article types, in between, as background that allows a better understanding of the blogger/writer. The reader should not demand of the blogger to cease writing particular types of articles to focus on the type that they like, because that introduces inauthenticity into the blogger's work. The blogger will no longer be true to the moment and to themselves if they blog on demand, in this way.

I will write what I wish to write, when I wish to write it. That is, in fact, the attraction of blogging. There is no editor with a decision over whether or not any particular thought may be published, there is no publisher to say "The market isn't big enough for that!", there is only the thought and the wish to communicate it - along with the unparalleled ability to do so, at the press of a key.

I do take note of the readers comments over what they do and do not like. However, I also note the proprietorial attitude of some of them - and this concerns me. The reader does not own the blog - just as the reader does not write the blog. To expect the blogger to write on demand is to completely destroy the meaning of what it is to blog. So, I am not going down that path. I will write what it occurs to me to write on any particular day.

At the same time, I am happy to have readers and enjoy my correspondence with them. Yet, the day I allow myself to be dictated to, by the more vocal readers and have my work determined by them, is the day that I should really cease to write. I won't do that. I will write what I wish to, when I wish to...and hope that some people, at least, appreciate it enough to read it.

Thank you.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Over 100,000 hits since this blog started.

Today, is a day of celebration on this blog. Today, my total number of reader hits since the blog started 23 months ago, is 100,052.

Now, 100,052 is quite a healthy number, I think, given that there are far too many blogs in the world (roughly speaking there is about one blog for every ten internet connections, according to the last figures I read. In other words, everyone has tens of millions of blogs to choose from. Getting readers in those circumstances is a definite victory.)

Most people who arrive on this blog are interested in giftedness, or education, in some way. So, that figure of 100,000 total readers since the day the blog began, is an indication of the level of interest in these subjects, worldwide. That interest is significant, if not overwhelming. There are many things that people could be interested in, many things they could read. Were I to write a blog on Tom Cruise, I am sure that the readership would be a hundred fold higher. However, I don't think such a blog would add anything worthwhile to the world. There are enough media covering Tom Cruise to make a blog about him unnecessary.

Giftedness, however, is a subject that is both of importance and under-covered, in some ways. There is much that can be said in this arena - and much that needs to be said. It is a subject of dear interest to those parents who have a gifted child to raise and, as such, is worth devoting some energy too.

I would like to thank all my readers for deciding to read some of what I have written. Please pass the word around about this blog so that others, too, might enjoy what I have written, or find value in it, in some way.

To put those figures into perspective, my readership per year has doubled so far in the second year compared to the first. 100,000 hits is a target that I had set myself at the end of the first year, for the second year - and it is one that I have achieved before the year is up. We will see what the actual total for the year comes to on September 19th, 2008 which will be my blog's second birthday.

Happy reading all.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)