January 21, 2005

Rhetoric of Journalism vs. Blogging

Joho the Blog posts some interesting observations about the different rhetorical strategies used by journalists versus those used by webloggers (although he doesn't use the R-word):

Journalists have a tiny vocabulary for expressing incredulity: 'alleged,' 'reportedly,' 'claimed,' 'suspected.' The rest of us have a rich rhetoric of semi-belief, starting with a simple 'I think that...' and going all the way to 'I find it really hard to believe anything that lying fathead says, but...'
Although this seems like a minor difference, as Joho notes, weblog rhetoric provides a wider range of "degrees of belief" for reporting. Whether this is good or bad depends on how you look at it.

[via Joho the Blog]

Posted by johndan at January 21, 2005 03:33 PM | TrackBack