But, most people do differentiate between a serious news site.. and a blog…

Now that you’ve published this article – which I found closer to the truth than many bloggers would dare to admit – expect many bloggers in India to engage in name-calling, vitriol and basically trash all that you’ve written, directed at you. And do not be perturbed when they do, because that would be entirely in keeping with the nature of the blogging activity. May I say that do not let any of that stop you from writing more such articles, but perhaps with a bit more depth, now that you’ve ploughed the surface?

Nothing in how I think and what think about this matter can be generalized, but there are large sections of bloggers that behave in a monolithic fashion, like groups of teenagers, except that most bloggers are only slightly more aged than teenagers. Statistics on Indian bloggers are scant, but I suspect you’d find that a majority of them are in the under-30 age group. Those who are older go through phases of realization that unless they behave like a teenager, they don’t get too many clicks and definitely not comments. When you combine impressionable age, fascination and awe with technology, the freedom to express, and most important, have enough time on their hands – these young men and women seem to really have nothing productive to do, which I think shouldn’t be surprising given how little of any use actually happens in India – what you get is, unfortunately, all the low-quality stuff. Blogging is closer to tabloid “journalism” than most bloggers realize.

The problem with the blogging activity is that there are no readers. Everybody is a writer. Blogging converts the hard to master skill of “listening to understand” into this “listening to respond” activity, hence the cacophony. Even worse, the younger generation of internet savvy boys and girls think that this “listening to respond” is all that is needed and that the more articulately and the more louder you shout, the more response you’ll get. Again, like a teenager a typical blogger would refuse to even register that there is such a problem. That, my friend, has got to change. I hope you’d spend some time thinking about these deeper issues in your next article, should you survive the mud-slinging in the aftermath of this article!:-)

Yours,
DesiAnonymous

The Times of India may occupy the bottom spot – both in the quality of reportage and basic ethics – but rest assured that others are not very far behind.

For example see this blog – http://udupipressvictim.wordpress.com – where TOI reporter was exposed in Udupi, Karnataka. The chap was appointed as trustee to a famous temple in Kollur and is now accused of mismanaging crores of rupees.

My thoughts: Blogging is a platform, like paper is a plaform, you can be The Sun at one end, and Guardian at the other. And the same paper can be used to print anything from “Count your chickens before…” to “War and Peace”…but does any sane person blame paper for all the ills of bad journalism :D?