51–60 of 74 posts
TheVerge has become my favorite "mainstream" tech publication, largely because it covers actual tech news, rather than self-referential articles about tech journalism.
TheKernel is interesting as well http://www.kernelmag.com/
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Western culture has undergone a value shift. Today's values are superficial in the extreme - we value money, personality[1], and social status. We "want respect"[2], and don't want to be "judged"[3]. Most of all, we crave others' approval. The old values like integrity, honesty, empathy, conscientiouness and authenticity have been tossed aside. This is not a new idea. In the year ~ 100 AD the Roman poet Juvenal wrote…
How'd that Roman Empire turn out for them, once they got their bread and circuses? When claiming that this "fall of civilisation" talk is always around, I'm not sure drawing comparisons to the era leading to the fall of Rome is really bolstering your case. Quite the opposite.
I was told a long time ago that if the journalist/publication IS the story, something has gone wrong (excluding genuinely serious news like NewsCorp or the journos killed in Syria). Any time someone who runs a news website and spends almost as much time trying to convince you of their value as the value of the stories they're writing you have to ask what the purpose is. In most cases, it's to establish themselves for…
I always saw Silicon Valley inevitably being covered and cared about as much as the Hollywood insidery cabal of power and influence. As much as we believe in the ideas, teams, executions, it's still very much an old boys network. Don't fool yourself otherwise. The community upturns its nose constantly about gossip or fluff. But you don't get it, that's all there really is. Gossip and fluff. Tech reporting is as dry a…
In other words, hate the game not the playa.
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I'm similar. I never made a conscious decision, or said to myself "right, I'm never reading TechCrunch again," it was just something that sort of happened. I gradually unsubscribed feeds in Google Reader that were generating too much uninteresting stuff, I stopped visiting sites, I got busy doing things of my own.. and before I knew it, I was tech-blog-free. It's not like I know any less about what's going on in the…
Same here. I stopped following Siegler, Arrington, Sarah Lacy & co cause their arrogance and writing was just unbearable. They call themselves journalists/bloggers, but all they want is something in exchange for you appearing on their site/feed. That is not journalism. These guys stopped writing about tech a long time ago, and instead started writing about their close (relational/economic) interests.
The emperor has no clothes.
I'm more annoyed with the constant barrage of either Facebook, Apple, or Google getting in trouble because of privacy each week. Even when there is really no story at all (conceptual Google Glasses? Privacy! Instagram being bought, despite no TOS changes? Privacy!).
Given how many years the political circle jerk known as cable news has been going, I believe there may be an infinite appetite for this stuff.
Warning: Rant. There is indeed. Western culture has undergone a value shift. Today's values are superficial in the extreme - we value money, personality[1], and social status. We "want respect"[2], and don't want to be "judged"[3]. Most of all, we crave others' approval. The old values like integrity, honesty, empathy, conscientiouness and authenticity have been tossed aside. It's also the reason people like Arringto…
Citation needed. I agree with the rest of your cultural critique, but I doubt very much that it's ever not been like that.
It often seems we humans make progress in spite of ourselves.
I always saw Silicon Valley inevitably being covered and cared about as much as the Hollywood insidery cabal of power and influence. As much as we believe in the ideas, teams, executions, it's still very much an old boys network. Don't fool yourself otherwise. The community upturns its nose constantly about gossip or fluff. But you don't get it, that's all there really is. Gossip and fluff. Tech reporting is as dry a…
In the tech industry we definitely make celebrities of the wrong people. I can't recall a single other industry where journalists are the top-tier talent attraction, and I can't explain why that is. The closest in influence is perhaps the top editors in fashion - but otherwise we are in a league of our own (I have seen small-time contributors to Techcrunch get mobbed at tech events). I have watched new tech bloggers…
My perception from back when i was reading lots of tech blogs is that tech journalists are just not good journalists, almost all of them (I can't think of an exceptional case, no offense intended). They almost never do real world research, just rely on google, big newspapers, press releases, the random dude who calls to promote his new website and lately on HN / reddit (that strikes me as extremely lazy). You almost never read discussions or interviews with actual tech people in a calm, focused tone (a-la charlie Rose), their attention span is that of the average redditor and the thought process is usually shallow. Articles go out in minutes, they wait for commenters to correct them, and the opinions are tailored to the fan crowd in order to provoke the usual fan/troll replies and pageviews. You say that the "real heroes are inaccessible", but i wonder if tech bloggers try hard enough to access them.
I always saw Silicon Valley inevitably being covered and cared about as much as the Hollywood insidery cabal of power and influence. As much as we believe in the ideas, teams, executions, it's still very much an old boys network. Don't fool yourself otherwise. The community upturns its nose constantly about gossip or fluff. But you don't get it, that's all there really is. Gossip and fluff. Tech reporting is as dry a…