(the original Indian Pundit)

Part 2: The rise of Punditry and why it actually makes blogging more credible to the consumer

There's an interesting July 2006 survey on consumer acceptance of online news sources by the Pew Research Center , a media think tank, that is worth a look to understand how media sources are using the internet... its conclusions implicitly bode well for the rising prominence of the blogosphere and its practitioners.

Long since the three networks held sway over mass public opinion, the advent of cable channels and alternative media, followed by the internet, broadened consumer choice in how they want their news and information presented. These "channels" attract differentiated audiences based on political and intellectual leanings, geography and socioeconomic demographics. A new type of journalism took hold - one that relies on reporting from a point of view, a non-neutral perspective. Hence, the emergence of the "Pundit".

The word Pundit actually had good connotations before it became a derogatory term:

pundit /ˈpʌndɪt/
–noun
1. a learned person, expert, or authority.
2. a person who makes comments or judgments, esp. in an authoritative manner; critic or commentator.
[Origin: Hindi pandit < Skt pandita learned man, (adj.) learned]

As Wikipedia states : "the term has been increasingly applied to popular media personalities lacking special expertise, [and] has taken on negative connotations in current usage."

The rise of punditry has generated public skepticism to traditional news sources... who can you trust? ... but pundits, just by espousing their opinions, gain avid, loyal constituencies because they become "trusted". By extension, the blogosphere now breeds the new set of journalists who become especially powerful when they bring specific knowledge and experience to their "media" offering.

Politics, technology, Wall Street and entertainment all have their media pundits... we can name them ... and the celebrity list of bloggers and blogsites parallel these categories. The business blogger, and particularly our focus, the real estate blogger, is a relatively new creature in this landscape.  Rob at Pittsburgh Homes Daily, acclaimed for his compilation of 500 real estate blogs, estimates 1,000+ active real estate blogs out there in America. That's not too many... that's one RE blog per ~300,000 people = one per Pittsburgh = one per St.Paul (wait... aren't there two?)

Blogging has been around for a few years now; it will reach a tipping point soon. The media, the search engines, MS Vista, and the consumer are all ripe for recognizing blogs as trusted information sources... and we bloggers should be excited about being on the front line of this media opportunity.

Next up: How the Real Estate Blogosphere Unfolds

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