Blogs were a big topic for magazine cover stories last week. First, there was former Gawker editor Emily Gould's exercise in oversharing in The New York Times Magazine; then came New York magazine's cover story on a frequent commenter -- yes, commenter -- to a blog about Brooklyn. Finally, there was the pièce de résistance, at least for our business-addled brain: BusinessWeek's cover package, "Beyond Blogs. What Business Needs to Know."
Oh, brother.
Turns out that the story is an update of a BusinessWeek examination of blogs three years ago, when the magazine informed its readers that "blogs will change your business" and that those underlined words on the Web are "links." Really? You don't say! Now the magazine has cottoned on to the fact that there are more than just blogs out there -- there's YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and a world of social media that people use to communicate and network with one another.
Really? Who knew?
Well, probably everyone, though some in the blogosphere hailed the piece as a good overview for non-networked types. Sill, like its 2005 predecessor, the new BusinessWeek story traffics in the obvious. "Vast social networks such as Facebook and MySpace offer people new ways to meet and exchange information," it reports, in a tone reminiscent of Mork's dispatches to Ork about the wonders of Earth. "Sites like LinkedIn help millions forge important work relationships and alliances."
The story then goes on to explain how social networking was used to report the piece -- the writers sent out a few posts on Twitter to ask people how social media is changing their work life, and the responses came pouring in. This is a thrilling development for the authors, who giddily quote a Twitter response or "tweet" from a 23-year-old who just landed a job in PR: "The new resume is 140 characters." The authors then proceed to have a eureka moment when they decide to use social media to reach a "corporate honcho," BT Group plc technology chief J.P. Rangaswami, after their phone call to the honcho's press department goes unanswered. "We wonder if we should try another number before it strikes us how silly we've been," they write. "We can go straight to the person! That's what social media lets you do."
It's also what good reporters have always done, even in the days before Twitter. (It was called working the phones.) No matter. This story, like BusinessWeek overall, seems totally invested in the idea that thanks to social media, everything is different. Everyone from 23-year-old job seekers, J.P Rangaswami, journos, readers and some guy sitting around in his underwear is operating on the same connected and equally important plane. If you're linked in, BusinessWeek wants to hear from you, quote you, write for you, even get story assignments from you. If not, poor you.
Indeed, on BusinessWeek.com, readers are asked to submit story ideas that will be doled out to BusinessWeek reporters. (Lucky them.) A recent plea on the site from executive editor John Byrne: "Help Us Cover America's Recession." Writes Byrne of BusinessWeek.com's new young recession reporter, whom he compares to -- get this -- the late Alistair Cooke: "Who should he meet? Where should he go? What should he write?"
Well, for starters, how about the fact that we're not officially in a recession? Yes, we know. Picky, picky; it certainly feels like a recession. But that's what editors do; they nitpick about accuracy and facts. But such technicalities only get in the way when you're looking to drum up traffic or even persuade 23-year-olds to send you their story ideas -- preferably in 140 characters or less.
Of course, we all want our journalism to be thoroughly reported, which often means talking to scores of people when shaping stories and ideas. But does that mean we want reporting to become just another American Idol-like exercise, with the crowd determining whom journalists meet, where they go and what they write? The Times took a lot of heat (and generated lots of buzz, Web traffic and comments) last week for giving several pages of its magazine to a 26-year-old tattooed blogger who had nothing to talk about but herself. But perhaps that piece was just a sign of things to come as more media outlets follow BusinessWeek and look to readers to generate content. After all, most people's favorite topic is themselves.