An interesting question was raised by Deep Jive Interests.
Normally I keep my digging and my blogging separate, but since he brought it up (and gave me a nice compliment in the post), I think I’ll go ahead and put in two cents.
What really gets my brain going is the question at the end….
“it (perhaps) raises some philosophical issues: SHOULD
the most powerful group of diggers participate in the blogosphere which
is so influenced by Digg both in terms of “thought leadership” and in
directing traffic? COULD it raise a conflict of interest? or should
MORE of them participate in an environment that it influences so much?”
BEGIN RANT HERE
I think Digg raises a lot of questions about journalism. Citizen journalism is taking on a new branch. Now instead of just creating content, diggers are deciding what content is newsworthy. They are becoming editors, that direct as many eyes as the NYT. It’s cool to be a part of it (currently ranked 42nd), but it’s also a bit of a mindfuck, especially for someone like me who wants to take part in journalism/media as a Carreer. I don’t want to make it sound overly important, but there is a bit of responsibility there. I think that’s the answer. Diggers can blog, bloggers can digg, and anyone can do both, but to engage in the civic conversation at that level a certain amount of self-policing has to be present in one’s mind at all times. After all, it’s your reputation as a digger that’s on the line. Just like in blogging, the masses can tell when someone is bullshitting.
Why don’t I digg my own blog? Mostly because it’s not that good — quick blurbs and links. I like to think that if I ever put a really strong post out there, I could submit it to digg. Tomorrow just might be the day that I submit something I wrote to digg. If so, it will be a work of journalism, not just my ranting, which I will end in this post soon.
END RANT HERE
BEGIN EGO INFLATION HERE
Since this blog is all about my huge ego, I’d like to quote the comment Deep Jive had about my blog (emhpasis is mine)
“digidave” http://www.digidave.org/ technology, science, culture (its just cool and well written).”
You are all free to write more niceties in the comments below.
Hey Dave,
Thanks for the kind link back.
I think Digg opens up a whole can of worms regarding Citizen Journalism — least of which is the ethical concerns around the entire thing.
Its funny when technology moves this fast — no one’s had time to debate whether its moving in the right direction or not.
Digg, I think, is ripe for all kinds of abuses — and I’ve ranted, seemingly, without end, that sometimes it happens on *the editorial side.*
But when one thinks about it, as you mention, its also ripe for manipulation on the Digger side too … particularly those who are in the top50 (or 100 or whatever), because the algorithm which determines the front page news seems (from what I’ve read) to favour historically “favoured” diggers.
Although no one’s really done it so far, one could imagine how a top100 digger creates a blog, writes something (or not) newsworthy, then diggs his own submission.
That sequence of events could actually cause small ripples in the blogosphere by direct manipulation of one person.
Hmmm … pretty interesting when you think about it.
Cheers (and keep up the good work)
t @ dji
wtf? You’re one of the top 50 diggers?
http://diggforlife.blogspot.com/
Yes Oliver, I am. Like I said, I’ve been keeping my blogging and digging seperate, so you wouldn’t really know it unless you dived deep into my blog (the never-ending blogroll).
Right now I’m ranked 44th all time, but there is eb and flow every day.