Brendan Hodgson

Jan
2006

Media-manufactured Trends… "Blogging about Business Travel"

So… I read an article yesterday that reminded me of an old ‘Bloom County’ cartoon – you remember Bloom County, no? Opus the Penguin, Bill the Cat (Ack!), Tales too ticklish to tell? Pear Pimples for Hairy Fishnuts? (fourth from the top)

Anyway, Opus is the trends reporter at the International Bloom Picayune. The clock is ticking, and he’s struggling to find a new trend to write about but realizes all the good trends have already been covered — yuppies, single parents, cabbage patch things, republicanism, ice cream (note – this dates back to the mid-80’s). His journalist colleague, Milo Bloom, then offers up the fact that “maybe the country is growing suspicious of media-manufactured trends” … which, of course, becomes the trend…

This is a fine example.

Categories: Media

6 Comments

Jan
2006

DL Byron

Hmm, we’re in that article with other great blogs and would agree with the reporter that more business travelers are blogging, so doesn’t that make it a trend? Is it part of a larger trend, what defines a trend? I mean, we’re blogging about business travel regardless of whether the NYTimes noticed us or not and by launching that blog we hoped to fill a niche for the business traveler. There are plenty of travel blogs, but few specifically covering business. Did we manufacture our own trend?

I’m a bit lost here. But it does seem full circle, blogs blog, media notices, blogs backlash against the media.

Jan
2006

Eric Eggertson

You can find another business travel blog by Shel Holtz:

http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/roadweary

Jan
2006

Thanks for the link Eric, and all good questions Byron. Did you manufacture your own trend? I don’t believe so. I also think it’s a moot point. Rather, my objective was to show this as an example of how media – in its attempt to analyze a perceived (or real) "trend", actually becomes the catalyst in making it into one. Plus, I’m a big Bloom County fan and wanted to incorporate it into my blog.

Jan
2006