Friday, August 19, 2005
CBC Lockout III: Let the blog war begin
The first couple of days of the CBC lockout were days of shell shock.
Now the shock is wearing off.
The managers were stupid enough to drive the audience away and, no matter how this is settled, leave a large number of disgruntled employees. Not too mention the middle managers, "confidential employees" and members of other unions who are locked in the Toronto Broadcast Centre and not doing much. Some of the middle managers and confidentials, I am hearing from reliable sources, are extremely depressed and others not too pleased with their superiors to say the least.
Outside the walls, in the last 36 hours, a profound change took place. And that change is going to have reprecussions beyond what happens in the labour dispute.
This is now the first blog war!!
And in that battle, management hasn't even sent out a byte.
I realized that last night when I got home from having a drink with a couple of CBC friends and checked Steve Rubel's Microperusasian blog.
I saw a link to a blog that suggests the CBC's sugar daddy, the National Hockey League, create its own podcasting network, largely because it is frozen out of US television.
You'll find it here: Can podcasting save the NHL?
The writer Matt May doesn't even mention the CBC lockout, (Americans seldom pay attention to Canada). But even this suggestion is another threat. The NHL is not happy to say the least with the CBC. And as I said in a note to friends, if the NHL, or someone else, wanted to create a quality podcast all the people, not just Hockey Night in Canada staff, but a lot of technical people as well are available at the moment.
And what happens when there is a settlement at CBC and the NHL goes ahead and creates a podcast anyway? Someone a year from now could watch the Leafs (win I hope) sitting somewhere with a PDA or video pod.
I was rather, as readers may note, angry at Russell Smith's column and his remarks about freelancing in the Globe. That's when I decided to start blogging the lockout. Others have started blogging as well.
My colleague John Gushue in St. John's is listing the growing number of blogs, both from locked out CBC employees, and others, who are leaping on this issue. This is a blog war. And in 2005 blogging may be more effective than the traditional walking and walking and walking round and round and round a building (In my job I walk...in the opposite direction as everyone else, taking pictures)
Since I am determined to keep this blog looking at the longer term implications of the lockout rather than the day-to-day issues, I am beginning think that this blog war will change the media in Canada and perhaps elsewhere.
One reason management says it wants "flexibility" is that the threat to they say comes from the Internet.
The fact that many CBC people started blogs or expanded their blogs in the past couple of days shows now the flexiblity, ideas and innovation that has been going on inside the broadcast centres across the country for years. In fact most of the innovation at CBC, both in the journalism and the technical side, has come from the bottom up, not the other way around.
And there will be a lot more innovation to come.
The CBC blog war, I predict, will go down as one major step in the changing media landscape.
Why, if you wanted to preserve what you have, did you launch 5,500 talented people in blogsphere and podcasting cyberspace when blogs and podcasting are eating away at the media market share?
People who follow blogs will see that the CBC employees, who normally are not really permitted to have public opinions (because we are a public broadcaster) are articulate, intelligent human beings from all sides of the political spectrum, not as the right wing media and bloggers tend to assume, time servers at the Iron Rice Bowl.
Anyone in the media anywhere in the world, can now see the CBC lockout from a growing number of varied voices. Management, of course, won't comment, except through a dedicated spokesperson. And the public can read those voices as well.
It is too early to predict the outcome of this labour dispute. If it drags on too long, people will begin getting other jobs. If there is a settlement in the next day or so, things have still changed.
I hated the term coined in the US, used mainly by the right, of MSM--Main Stream Media, I have worked in the Main Stream Media for 30 years and I am damned proud of that.
One example, on September 11, 2001, USA Networks, without a news outlet of their own took the feed from CBC News and we were overwhelmed with notes of thanks and praise from Americans who turned on the Home Shopping Network and never left. (Wonder what the managers who planned the lockout were doing on 9/11???)
I am constantly amazed about when I travel in the US so many people come up to me (sometimes because they notice a CBC luggage tag on my backpack) and say how much they love "As It Happens."
But it may that by shutting down one arm of the MSM, the CBC, the managers are not only driving the TV audience away, they are showing that the MSM is becoming irrelevant. (Although it remains to be seen how people or companies can make money at doing this, the only blogs that are making money so far are techy ones).
No plan ever survived first contact with the enemy the saying goes. So stay clicked (stay tuned is no longer an option) and watch what happens.
These blogs may be like the introduction of the airplane in the First World War....it changed the landscape no matter who won and who lost.
Technorati tags
writing, journalism, CBC, hockey, NHL, blogs blogging
, blog, news, sports
9:19 AM posted by Robin Rowland
Permanent Link
Links to this post
Now the shock is wearing off.
The managers were stupid enough to drive the audience away and, no matter how this is settled, leave a large number of disgruntled employees. Not too mention the middle managers, "confidential employees" and members of other unions who are locked in the Toronto Broadcast Centre and not doing much. Some of the middle managers and confidentials, I am hearing from reliable sources, are extremely depressed and others not too pleased with their superiors to say the least.
Outside the walls, in the last 36 hours, a profound change took place. And that change is going to have reprecussions beyond what happens in the labour dispute.
This is now the first blog war!!
And in that battle, management hasn't even sent out a byte.
I realized that last night when I got home from having a drink with a couple of CBC friends and checked Steve Rubel's Microperusasian blog.
I saw a link to a blog that suggests the CBC's sugar daddy, the National Hockey League, create its own podcasting network, largely because it is frozen out of US television.
You'll find it here: Can podcasting save the NHL?
The writer Matt May doesn't even mention the CBC lockout, (Americans seldom pay attention to Canada). But even this suggestion is another threat. The NHL is not happy to say the least with the CBC. And as I said in a note to friends, if the NHL, or someone else, wanted to create a quality podcast all the people, not just Hockey Night in Canada staff, but a lot of technical people as well are available at the moment.
And what happens when there is a settlement at CBC and the NHL goes ahead and creates a podcast anyway? Someone a year from now could watch the Leafs (win I hope) sitting somewhere with a PDA or video pod.
I was rather, as readers may note, angry at Russell Smith's column and his remarks about freelancing in the Globe. That's when I decided to start blogging the lockout. Others have started blogging as well.
My colleague John Gushue in St. John's is listing the growing number of blogs, both from locked out CBC employees, and others, who are leaping on this issue. This is a blog war. And in 2005 blogging may be more effective than the traditional walking and walking and walking round and round and round a building (In my job I walk...in the opposite direction as everyone else, taking pictures)
Since I am determined to keep this blog looking at the longer term implications of the lockout rather than the day-to-day issues, I am beginning think that this blog war will change the media in Canada and perhaps elsewhere.
One reason management says it wants "flexibility" is that the threat to they say comes from the Internet.
The fact that many CBC people started blogs or expanded their blogs in the past couple of days shows now the flexiblity, ideas and innovation that has been going on inside the broadcast centres across the country for years. In fact most of the innovation at CBC, both in the journalism and the technical side, has come from the bottom up, not the other way around.
And there will be a lot more innovation to come.
The CBC blog war, I predict, will go down as one major step in the changing media landscape.
Why, if you wanted to preserve what you have, did you launch 5,500 talented people in blogsphere and podcasting cyberspace when blogs and podcasting are eating away at the media market share?
People who follow blogs will see that the CBC employees, who normally are not really permitted to have public opinions (because we are a public broadcaster) are articulate, intelligent human beings from all sides of the political spectrum, not as the right wing media and bloggers tend to assume, time servers at the Iron Rice Bowl.
Anyone in the media anywhere in the world, can now see the CBC lockout from a growing number of varied voices. Management, of course, won't comment, except through a dedicated spokesperson. And the public can read those voices as well.
It is too early to predict the outcome of this labour dispute. If it drags on too long, people will begin getting other jobs. If there is a settlement in the next day or so, things have still changed.
I hated the term coined in the US, used mainly by the right, of MSM--Main Stream Media, I have worked in the Main Stream Media for 30 years and I am damned proud of that.
One example, on September 11, 2001, USA Networks, without a news outlet of their own took the feed from CBC News and we were overwhelmed with notes of thanks and praise from Americans who turned on the Home Shopping Network and never left. (Wonder what the managers who planned the lockout were doing on 9/11???)
I am constantly amazed about when I travel in the US so many people come up to me (sometimes because they notice a CBC luggage tag on my backpack) and say how much they love "As It Happens."
But it may that by shutting down one arm of the MSM, the CBC, the managers are not only driving the TV audience away, they are showing that the MSM is becoming irrelevant. (Although it remains to be seen how people or companies can make money at doing this, the only blogs that are making money so far are techy ones).
No plan ever survived first contact with the enemy the saying goes. So stay clicked (stay tuned is no longer an option) and watch what happens.
These blogs may be like the introduction of the airplane in the First World War....it changed the landscape no matter who won and who lost.
Technorati tags
writing, journalism, CBC, hockey, NHL, blogs blogging
, blog, news, sports
9:19 AM posted by Robin Rowland
Permanent Link
