Bloggers sometimes feel that their influence has surpassed the mainstream media (MSM). Nico Lumma brings us all back to earth with the hard facts: the MSM is still king, and bloggers have a parasitic relationship to it:
Dabei wird deutlich, und das ist wenig verwunderlich, dass Spiegel Online sehr häufig verlinkt wird, gefolgt von Heise.de und Tagesschau.de; das erste Blog folgt auf Platz 14: Spreeblick.
Die Anzahl der Links zu einer Site sagt natürlich noch nichts über die
Qualität des Inhalts oder gar die Zugriffe insgesamt aus, aber es wird
sichtbar, welche Quellen für die Blogosphäre wichtig sind.
The chart can be accessed here. Dave Sifrey of Technorati also shows that the MSM prevails in the US, with the NY TImes, Washington Post, and CNN commanding the most links. Still, US bloggers have comparatively more influence than their German counterparts. BoingBoing and Instapundit appear in 10th and 11th place respectively. Dialog International certainly follows the trend, with more links to Spiegel and the NY Times than any other media sources. Lumma will be reporting monthly on developments, so it will be interesting to see if bloggers gain in influence.
Meanwhile the New York Times Book Review has an example of how blogs, MSM and spinmeisters now exist in a media symbiosis. Blogger Ann Marie Cox (aka Wonkette) reviews former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer’s new book, Taking Heat.
