THE BLOGBUDSMAN: THE FUTURE OF BLOGGING?

by BOHChris, Blog of Hilarity

The Blogbudsman is your weekly take on the blogosphere, written as objectively and honestly as possible. Questions, comments, and suggestions should go to roomtonecsATblogofhilarityDOTcom

After allowing the readers to decide what direction this column will take last week, the results are in. By a substantial margin, you've selected "An entirely honest critique of the work done on Epic Carnival and the blogosphere." So thanks guys for giving me the most challenging theme to work with.

This week: What is the future of sports blogging?, and this week's Overhyped/Underhyped. All this and more...after the jump, of course.

THE FUTURE OF SPORTS BLOGGING

When one of the biggest and most influential blogs around announces that it's seeking a paradigm shift from snarky commentary to legitimate reporting to compete with traditional media, what does that mean for the rest of the blog world? It's obviously premature to speculate if this is a revolution for what blogging can or will become. But as the well of YouTube videos and silly athlete MySpace pages runs dry and every blog is oversaturated with a similar sounding opinion, what differentiates sports blogging from your local sports columnist?

Much like Gawker's new mission seems to be, in order to truly be defined as "legitimate media" rather than a diversion, one needs to be able to report and break news. Many previous attempts at breaking news, even by the most influential and credible bloggers, have been inconsequential at best and embarrassing at worst.

Even reporters that double as bloggers with great success, such as Dan Steinberg over at the DC Sports Bog or Michael Rand at Randball, or Matt Mosley at ESPN's Hashmarks hardly ever break news that other bloggers would be unable to. Think about it. Of the "top" sports blogs (insomuchas in terms of visibility and traffic rather than something subjective like quality), how many are legitimate newsmakers of any consequence?

Deadspin, With Leather, and AOL's Fanhouse are all incredibly competent as diversions and in quickly covering top stories as well as unearthing interesting items that may fall under your radar. Those three blogs excel at the absurdity of sports, offering a valuable contrarian take for the "ironic generation." But as a competitor to the traditional media, their offerings are no different than getting your news from VH1's Best Week Ever.

This isn't to say that blogs need to be able to make news in order to be of value. There's interesting discussion across the blogosphere, depending upon where you look. Sites like Awful Announcing and The Big Lead are practically the equivalent of a sports media "trade magazine," covering issues as key to the industry as an Advertising Age does for marketers or a Broadcasting & Cable does for broadcasters. TrueHoop is a site that offers just as much as any NBA news site. But beyond those, how many sites can you say that you would trust their reporting?

In every other genre of blogging, bloggers are capable of finding stories. TMZ and Perez Hilton break more news than any legitimate celebrity media source. The Daily Kos and the Huffington Post are as adept as any mainstream political competitor at snooping out stories as any reporter. However until a sports blog can truly establish itself as a viable resource for journalists and readers to get fact rather than brief bites of humor, reporters and news personalities will always have an argument as to the failings of the Blogger.

Right now, sports blogs as a whole are just a distraction; a sidedish, rather than the main course.

OVERHYPED AND UNDERHYPED

So in this spot every week, I'm going to link to the most overhyped and underhyped story, blog, or general bullshit of the week.

Overhyped: The story of Jason Kidd going "on strike". An athlete unhappy in their situation, due to team performance or a lack of a contract extension? No way! I've never heard anything like this before! What's next? An athlete making a hip hop album? That'll be the day.

Second place: This SPORTSbyBROOKS girl. I'd probably rather rub myself on a cactus to get off rather than touch her.

Underhyped: I'm going with a blog this week because, frankly, it sickens me that they don't get more attention. The kids over at Hugging Harold Reynolds are doing the Lord's work, both there and here on EC. Their Weekly Power Rankings are one of the funniest weekly features in the blogosphere. If you're not checking them out, you're only cheating yourself.

WORD

So that's it for this week. Given the focus of this column, emails with your tips or gripes about the blogosphere are welcome and encouraged. Send them to roomtonecsATblogofhilarityDOTcom. Everything's anonymous, of course.

And of course, since this is all about opening up a discussion about the issues addressed here, hopefully there'll be some worthwhile comments below. Beyond telling me I should get AIDS. Because believe me, I'm well aware.