Delivery2008
12th April 2009, 08:08 PM
In today’s Washington Post there is a monumentally inept essay by Kathleen Parker that both bemoans the death of the print newspaper and aptly illustrates precisely why it is dying, thanks to the article’s delightful combination of factual error, failed analysis, and ugly condescending elitism. The main thread is that blowhards like Rush Limbaugh are destroying good hardworking newspapers (who knew his 20 million listeners were more damaging than the loss of add revenue to Craigslist -- a factor which was not even mentioned). The money quote for me was this one:
In the not-distant future … the news may be delivered via a video game. Forget the Internet. Forget blogs, tweets and tags. Forget Jim Cramer-style infotainment. Millions of people are already living in computerized parallel universes through games such as "The Sims" and "World of Warcraft" (WoW). We may have to toss the newspaper on those stoops -- in the virtual world of fake life.
More brandy, please.
Brandy? Anyway, someone should tell Ms. Parker that The Sims Online closed last summer, and that news delivery in a video game is here and it involves either an RSS feed or opening an window that is connected, by tubes, to the interwebs. I swear, is Ted Stevens this woman’s technology adviser? For more Parker ineptitude see below the fold.
Parker inverts the actual relationship between traditional media and those hardworking journalists that actually dig up facts. She thinks that newspapers protect the reporters that find out new stuff and that the blogs (and in world newspapers?) just amplify the noise. In point of fact, investigative reporters have been drummed out of newspapers and take up shop covering their beat by blog and freelancing stories to traditional media outlets on those rare occasions when those outlets feel inclined to cut a few paragraphs out of their Lilo coverage. But it’s apparently not enough for this Post writer to be merely inept, it seems she also needs to add a gratuitously misinformed analysis of the sociology of video game culture:
For those who have been busy with real life, "The Sims" is apparently popular with women who can create a virtual doppelganger and live happily in the suburbs. For millions of guys, WoW is a role-playing game that combines fantasy with mythology. One can't help noting that males and females acting out fantasies are drawn to roles frowned upon in real life: suburban homemaking and warrior-hero play. Hmmmm.
I would comment, but sometimes things speak for themselves.
In the not-distant future … the news may be delivered via a video game. Forget the Internet. Forget blogs, tweets and tags. Forget Jim Cramer-style infotainment. Millions of people are already living in computerized parallel universes through games such as "The Sims" and "World of Warcraft" (WoW). We may have to toss the newspaper on those stoops -- in the virtual world of fake life.
More brandy, please.
Brandy? Anyway, someone should tell Ms. Parker that The Sims Online closed last summer, and that news delivery in a video game is here and it involves either an RSS feed or opening an window that is connected, by tubes, to the interwebs. I swear, is Ted Stevens this woman’s technology adviser? For more Parker ineptitude see below the fold.
Parker inverts the actual relationship between traditional media and those hardworking journalists that actually dig up facts. She thinks that newspapers protect the reporters that find out new stuff and that the blogs (and in world newspapers?) just amplify the noise. In point of fact, investigative reporters have been drummed out of newspapers and take up shop covering their beat by blog and freelancing stories to traditional media outlets on those rare occasions when those outlets feel inclined to cut a few paragraphs out of their Lilo coverage. But it’s apparently not enough for this Post writer to be merely inept, it seems she also needs to add a gratuitously misinformed analysis of the sociology of video game culture:
For those who have been busy with real life, "The Sims" is apparently popular with women who can create a virtual doppelganger and live happily in the suburbs. For millions of guys, WoW is a role-playing game that combines fantasy with mythology. One can't help noting that males and females acting out fantasies are drawn to roles frowned upon in real life: suburban homemaking and warrior-hero play. Hmmmm.
I would comment, but sometimes things speak for themselves.