http://technopop.org/2009/10/01/the-trouble-with-trends-journalism/ technology -v- culture ... and whatever other else is on our minds today Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:53:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://technopop.org/2009/10/01/the-trouble-with-trends-journalism/comment-page-1/#comment-1995 pyker Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:05:36 +0000 http://technopop.org/?p=128#comment-1995 Heh. You've identified the fundamental problem: lack of rigor when identifying "trends". If anyone's going to publish a trend story, I'd like to see some statistical confirmation that it is a trend. If not, no story. If it is, there's a 99% chance I still don't want to see it as a story, because trend stories are a bit like survey stories. You're either telling me something I already know, or telling me about what other people are doing and I don't care. Very occasionally a trend story works but only if (a) it's a real phenomenon and (b) there is something interesting to be said about it. Heh. You’ve identified the fundamental problem: lack of rigor when identifying “trends”. If anyone’s going to publish a trend story, I’d like to see some statistical confirmation that it is a trend. If not, no story. If it is, there’s a 99% chance I still don’t want to see it as a story, because trend stories are a bit like survey stories. You’re either telling me something I already know, or telling me about what other people are doing and I don’t care. Very occasionally a trend story works but only if (a) it’s a real phenomenon and (b) there is something interesting to be said about it.

]]>