Recently bloggers have come under fire from critics in the media(kenyan newspapers especially). I heard sentiments of narcissism, attention seeking and all that.
I guess all i can say is fuck it! You know, people are free to their own opinions, but i wonder what really bothers them about our blogging? I never put up an ad in the local paper demanding or forcing them to check my blog, neither did i spam the social media asking people to comment. And as far as i know most of the bloggers i know dont do that either.
So when some overworked idiot from some local newspaper chooses to get mileage off bloggers by insulting them, hell yeah i'll feel insulted. We all have our reasons for writing, some of us do it because it's therapeutic and as a hobby, others do it [and i'm not naming names] because if they don't come up with something at the end of the week, they might lose their jobs, have to don heels and find a suitable variation for "me love you long time."
But it's cool, from a different perspective, criticism serves to ensure we raise our standards and pick a couple of pointers. Besides,i figure i can see where they're coming from; i'd also get jealous if i found tens of bloggers who write more interesting material than i do, have better structured content, better grammar, churn out entry after entry easily, are less stressed, and most importantly, do it for free? Fuck yeah i'd get pissed, and i'd vent it out in a national newspaper, assuming i worked for one of course, and cross my fingers hoping nobody noticed the online version of the newspaper also published my article, which in essence turns it into another useless blog entry.
At least i'm sincere about why i write. By that little rant up there i have saved myself thousands in terms of shrink services, saved my friends a lot of bitching...and *drumrolls* showed a couple of dumb writers, the only reason they still have a job is because most of us bloggers don't really want to get paid for our writing. I guess it's about time the mainstream media writers got called out over their habit of plagiarizing material off blogs. You can't have your cake and eat it...but i guess the more appropriate saying would be the one where you bite the hand that feeds you.
And at that point, i guess the air is clear.
I will dare say that some of the articles written and published by Kenyan mainstream media are opinion pieces and editorials rather than news facts.
ReplyDeleteI will spare you my rant on how some reporters bite off blogs without giving credit, conveniently muzzle themselves instead of reporting on real issues (as opposed to the 'Why women/men cheat' crap I see every day).
Long live the Kenyan Blogger!