Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Filtered comment: bloggers are getting it their way

The Guardian newspaper yesterday ran article that sought to dissect the story behind the only positive quote used in the poster of Guy Ritchie's latest pseudo-turkey Revolver (it turned out to be number two at the UK box office during the opening weekend, having grossed £900,000, second only to Pride and Prejudice) supposedly gleaned from the Sun's website but had in fact been produced by a digital agency that had partnered with the red top's online site.

However, the most interesting angle in the story really was how the internet and bloggers are quickly becoming the taste-makers of film consumption. White the Guardian's intention was vested as a defence of journalistic credibility, the underlying premise was that mainstream publications are trustworthy while independent, more obscure ones are not, east prey to the bribery of media agencies in search of positive editorial. There's a whiff of double-standards in this idea since mainstream publications rely, among other sources, on the cash paid by major film companies who advertise in their culture supplements. The fact is, the internet is taking over from traditional newspapers when it comes to film reviewing and this is a trend that is only going to get stronger. Besides, when a publication has Peter Bradshaw as the main film reviewer, I'm not quite sure whether it has the right to look down on bloggers and internet webmasters.
By the way, I also think Guy Ritchie sucks and so do his films.

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