The Medium is not the Message

Are all newspaper comics alike? There are the drama based commics like Mary Worth or Apartment 3-G. There are the laugh a day comics such as Dennis the Menace or Marmaduke. There are the Serial Adventure comics like Flash Gordon or Terry and the Pirates. There are all kinds of comics even though they use the same medium.

What is a blog? A blog is a medium. Not all blogs are alike, some are journals, some are political opinion pieces, some are expert advice columns. There are all kinds of blogs even though they all use the same medium.

However, political correctness has once again metamorphosised and this time it wants to take over the use of blogs. PC says, "If a blog does not conform to what I say a blog should be, then it should be prohibited."

A blog is a medium. Are all paintings landscapes? Is all music Jazz? Are all plays comedies? What right does anyone have to say that a blog is not allowed unless it is my kind of blog?

On the positive side of this topic let me mention a good recent article on different kinds of business blogs. In "Whose blog is it anyway?" Susan Solomon offers some practical advice for business blogging. I do not agree with everything Susan Solomon writes in the article, for example, she says that a blog is not a Press Release. If businesses want to use the blogging technology to send out Press Releases, go ahead and let them. If their efforts fail, they will hopefully change but if some company turns a blog into a successful format for Press Releases, who am I to say "That's just not allowed." I may personally not think it will work, but naysayers have been proven wrong, millions of times in the past. However, there is some very good advice in this article on different kinds of corporate blogs.