Causes of Content Chaos: Everyone's a Publisher

I talked at Factiva Forum about a few causes of the content chaos we all find ourselves awash in: (Everyone's a Publisher, "Markets are Conversations", The continued movement toward more dynamic news cycles).

I think those of us out here in the Blogosphere are pretty comfortable with the idea that the growth of blogs has created a world where "everyone's a publisher." I'm not a journalist but I can publish my thoughts just as my colleagues upstairs at The Wall Street Journal can. (Factiva is owned by Dow Jones and Reuters and we share some real estate with our parents.) Certainly, not nearly as many people are going to read what I have to say about technology as, say, Walt Mossberg, but in the collective bloggers are becoming a force. Our opinions are being read by others and in the 500-channel world each channel takes up equal space on the dial.

Studies have shown (that's a great phrase when you don't have real metrics) that people are more likely to trust their peers for an opinion than someone in authority (government, corporations, the media.)

So as bloggers become more of a driver of opinion and more of us become bloggers, corporations and governments had better keep watch.