The traditional press, newspapers, magazines, etc., have long enjoyed a unique power over the information that they present to their readers. They could selectively quote, frame the discussion, and in many ways make the information portray a preconceived story.
That era is coming to an end.
Mark Jen recently posted a preemptive disclosure of a conversation he had with a Forbes Magazine fact checker.
Mark Cuban went so far as to post the entire text of an email interview he did with a NY Times reporter, who evidently twisted Cuban’s words to fit his story.
Blogs are flattening the world of information. Big media will continue to hold large amounts of power, but abusing that power will become riskier, especially in instances where you are using quotes out of context, or framing articles in ways that totally disregard the source material. While it’s true that the majority of your readers may never see the other side of the story directly, your direct competitors may pick it up, and use it to undermine your credibility.
Blogging lowers the bar. It used to take a great deal of time & money to get a message to thousands or even millions of people. Now, any person can start a blog for free. Whether or not their words reach any audience will be determined by relevence, and the indexing of blogs that is being shaped by the likes of PubSub, Technorati, Google, and MSN.
Now, re-read that last sentence, and see if you can guess who the new Media Superpowers are going to be…
One Man Shouting 