Saturday, August 7, 2010

what's in a name

As a meter of fact (sic!), while I was googling for this blog title, I noticed it had already been used massively. But almost exclusively as a grammar mistake. So there you go: good ideas often come out of (or as) mistakes. The hard part comes after: you need to notice them.

My blog title did not come out of a grammar mistake, but out of some connection my brain made while reading a book. The book is too good to be mentioned here in connection with my blog title, but I will definitely mention it later.

In the meantime, I promise to stay true to my blog positioning and be subjective. As a former journalist and journalism student, I learned the difference between "objective" and "subjective." Unfortunately, most of the Romanian press forgets its status and duty to treat facts objectively, losing their credibility. Even the big international titles often face such challenges. A blogger, by contrary, has this great opportunity to stay true to their declared subjectivity. The responsibility is now with those reading to filter out the truth. Just like extracting a good idea from a grammar mistake.

The future of the media? With news, objectivity and cost are directly proportional. To give a silly, yet suggestive example, checking facts from three sources is more expensive than checking from a single source. So if you want truth and objectivity in news, you need to pay for it, or it will be flushed down in the cost cutting process. Free news is the end of objectivity. Free news becomes no news. That's not something we see happening overnight (there will still be newspapers on the rack tomorrow morning). But publications have died and will continue to. I believe media is a public service and I find it normal to pay for online news just like we pay for public transportation.

But that's not for me to change now. I ended my job as a journalist 4 years ago. 2 weeks ago I also ended my job as a Europe marketing & communication manager within a multinational (there, as I represented the image of the company, I abstained myself from blogging). I am now a brand & communication strategist with brand consultancy firm Grapefruit whose fan I've been for almost 6 years. So I can eventually sing like Tom Petty would if he were in my place: "Yes, I am free, free blogging..."

1 comment:

  1. Hi Adriana, I agree that name doesn't matter that much as the substance does, otherwise "Apple" as a brand wouldn't have done so well...same goes for "Orange", etc. But I noticed that your blog is a declaration - declaration of free speech(though that's the very basic characteristic of a blog)...free speech after speaking diplomatically for years in your so called 'multinational'. But I welcome you - welcome you to speak your mind and I am quite confident that you will be doing wonders in your new assignment.

    ReplyDelete