Nieman Foundation at Harvard
Robinson Meyer is tweeting up an interesting storm about the “death” of “tech blogging” — tied to Gizmodo’s announcement of some impressive new hires today. To get past the scarequotes, here’s Rob.
With @gizmodo’s massive refresh, this feels obvious but worth saying:“Tech blogging”—as the genre was long defined—no longer exists.
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2013
TechCrunch established the “tech blogging” form, when—after going with ~any~ start-up news—it launched a whole blog about phones in ~2006.
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2013
50% start-ups, 50% phones. “Tech blogging” as genre. The NYT’s Bits—a tech blog! at the NYT!—opens shop in 2007: bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/bit…
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2013
Last Oct., @nicknoted complained about a “general dearth of news” in Gizmodo’s beat: jimromenesko.com/2012/10/15/gaw… Too few new phones, companies.
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2013
(@alexismadrigal called & covered the *reasons* behind tech journalism’s demise all the way back in April 2012: theatlantic.com/technology/arc… )
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2013
Since spring of 2012, you could watch the tech beat break. What were business stories, media stories, policy stories were labeled “tech.”
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2013
Slow news day? This science story kinda sorta qualifies as “tech.” And, uh, hey! Here’s an architecture story that involves cell phones!
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2013
With @bldgblog & @paleofuture, @gizmodo enters (my fav) part of tech: gizmodo.com/new-faces-new-… Structure, history, ethics. Weird Techblogging.
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2013
Tech journalism, ca. 2013: • SAME AS IT EVER WAS: Ars.• COVER WHATEVER MIGHT BE TECH NEWS: The Verge, &c.• WEIRD STRUCTURES: @gizmodo!
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2013
The death of Web 2.0-flavored techblogging is worth celebrating because—maybe—it’ll end the rampant ahistoricism of technology journalism.
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2013
The best part of Web 2.0, of “social media,” of new(!) smartphones(!) was the rambunctious hope. But you can hope and know your own history.
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2013
Media has a history & policy has a history & higher education has a history, all of them riven with tech—yay, cover them! When appropriate!
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2013
You could think of what he’s saying as the Revenge of the Liberal Arts Majors.
While we’re talking about multi-tweet runs, might as well link to Ben Mathis-Lilly’s defense of new media terminology.
