OPEN

The Mmm-yes tendency in newspaper commentators

Professional arts journalists writing comment in an open network, where criticism and reaction from readers, can lead to some dilution of the critic’s craft, argues Peter Bradshaw, in a thoughtful piece for today’s Guardian.

He sees some writers adjusting their style to anticipate criticism, which waters down the potential stridency of their commentary:

There is something about the Mmm-yes-but theory of the blog that is quite disquieting. Even if it became a reality, it could result only in hesitant journalism, bland criticism and writing that is predisposed to dull consensus.

I do love the way he sums up the before and after of the advent of participation in online media.

…newspapers have, for hundreds of years, been a one-party state, and the net has brought that state to an end. Before the web, there was no serious opposition to the press in the press.

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Antony Mayfield

2 responses to “The Mmm-yes tendency in newspaper commentators”

  1. Ewan McIntosh Avatar
    Ewan McIntosh

    It’s the old “collective intelligence” versus “collective dumbness” thing that Kathy Sierra was saying the other day. I blogged about how it affects education:
    http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2007/01/collective_dumb.html

    Although we know there is no one right answer to a problem we all end up dumbing down our views to suit the majority when, in fact, what we need is some more disruption.

    Francois Bayrou (the first French politician up at LeWeb3) was on the French telly last night saying:
    “Si on n’a plus d’opinions différentes, on ne refléchis plus.” (If we don’t have different opinions we just stop thinking altogether.)

    He might just be right.

  2. Jackie Danicki Avatar
    Jackie Danicki

    It’s never a good idea to write for the commenters. Doing so is a bit like making your life choices based on what other people will think or say – an isolating and extremely limiting way to live or blog.

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