Blogger Power

Jeff Jarvis is one of the most articulate spokesbloggers when it comes to bridging the gap between old media and the weblog world, and if you aren’t paying a regular visit, you should be.
Jeff has been blogging the Online News conference, and took a dim view to some of the very restricted ideas of ‘interactivity’ he heard at a panel there:
In weblogs, people have their say and try to influence people in power. So what they have to say does not end there.
Interactivity isn’t about pushing buttons.
It is about interacting with power.
I’d add to that: it is also about creating power where there was none before. A few years back, this medium did not exist, and the media world was a binary one — you were either in it, and had power to define the issues of the day, or you weren’t, and couldn’t.
Now it is shades of gray, and every blogger has a chance to lend their voice to the chorus in a way that actually has a chance of rippling through the overlapping worlds of weblogs and traditional media and affecting the public debate.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: this change, from a black-and-white world of “in the media” vs. “not in the media”, to a gray world where it bloggers become a part of the media ecosystem — sorry, but it is the best word — this change is what makes weblogs powerful.
To be sure, individual bloggers don’t have nearly the immediate and direct ability to define the agenda that traditional media outlets do — not even Glenn. But what we can do is raise issues to the surface; draw attention to news that traditional media overlooked, and keep focus on issues until big media is forced to take notice.
No one blogger can rival traditional media. But taken together, we are the lever, and the blogosphere is the place where we can stand to move the world.
Even if it is just by a little bit…