Every Wednesday in the various ZD newsletters there is a plug for the column I wrote for PC Mag online. This week’s column is a good one, but I rolled my eyes when I read the blurb in the newsletter:
Dvorak Online: Media Bias and Technology
According to columnist John C. Dvorak, Microsoft isn’t in the limelight as much as people think. In fact, top columnists and technology writers are nearly all Mac users, entire newsrooms are filled with Macintoshes, and people go gaga over the video iPod. Is there some sort of media bias against Microsoft? See what Dvorak has to say in his bold, but possibly insightful, commentary.
Possibly insightful? Geez, don’t go overboard with praise.
Tee-Hee!
I guess they know a good computer when they see one. It really is a joy to use a computer that you don’t have to patch everday, worry about spyware and virus and that just works the way it is suppose to.
So the slashdot crowd is writing PC Mag’s press releases nowadays?!
Hmmmmm.
“…in his bold, but possibly insightful, commentary.”
Nice writing.
Sort of like “…in his green, but possibly made of latex, underpants.”
Or “…in hisremorseless, but possibly while enjoying opera, murderous rampage.”
How about “…in his argyle, but possibly holey, socks.”
Try it, it’s fun.
There are bold columnist, and old columnist, but not many bold old columnists. At least they spelled your name right.
I find you more bold and insightful than anybody! Well, except Andy Rooney.
Ouch. And it’s not even 4/1.
James Hill
The problem with all these current articles about Apple getting too much press coverage are just annoying. And the reason they are is not that they tend to be wrong, but because they are poorly researched and thought out. The reason is either Apple has good and evil PR people or the press uses Macs and therefore will only write positively about Apple and also hate Microsoft. That argument just doesn’t work. Microsoft is a software company Apple mostly hardware, so if you look at the journalists who praise Apple yes, they might do that writing their articles on a Mac, but also very likely using a Microsoft application called Word — which they probably couldn’t live without. So one question these articles never really address is why does Apple get a lot of press coverage?
First, I think they do have good PR, but there is nothing bad with that, everybody can hire good PR people if they want to get good press. But more importantly I think Apple gets good press coverage because they are smart (Microsoft is also smart don’t get me wrong, but they are just not as exploratory as Apple). Apple makes bold moves, they develop cool product, they are a consumer goods company. Microsoft is in a commodity business they make an ok OS and and ok office suite … it works that what can be said about it, sometimes they try to make it nicer, but they really don’t want to g o over board on it because the corporate market is their main market and they don’t want to piss them off. So now and then after a couple of Apple press events Microsoft thinks they have to come up with something cool, but to be honest they try too hard, when Apple comes out with the iPod MS comes out with some complicated, complex media center thing that does everything plus cook your dinner — how are you supposed to write about this ? It is like writing about Excel, there is just too much. So MS if you want to be cool and compete with Apple (which I think they don’t really want to do anyway) then go simple (see XBox it can work) stay focused and then it will be easier. Don’t talk about DRM and crap like that, talk about how easy the navigation is and that Bono also has an iPod. The problem is that MS (like Dvorak) is about engineers, coders, Apple thinks beyond that, they are thinking about users and they have understood how to talk to them. The reason journalists cover Apple so much is that, first Apple has a pretty good track record in showing where the industry is going to, so if Apple does something, chances are that this is going to be something big in a couple of years, if MS does something, chances are the market already exists, Second if Apple announces something it will be easy to write about because the product is going to be simple, and easy to understand for readers, while a new MS product, well you might as well add a link to a FAQ document if you want to write about.
ok, a bit lengthy, but by 2 cents on this topic.
Perhaps the blurb writer is a Mac user!
I think you bring up a good point. How might the connection between journalism as you characterize it and journalistic education be at fault? Seems like many programs that specialize in education for future journalists focus on a single platform (i.e. Apple). Just a thought. Oh, I am a Mac user 🙂
Intersting. I don’t know where you hang, john, but most of the newspapers and reporters I work with use PCs, except those like me that like stuff that works. You can’t make a point with unsupstantiated truthys, unless you work in the Bush administration.
BH
Interesting. I don’t know where you hang, john, but most of the newspapers and reporters I work with use PCs, except those like me that like stuff that works. You can’t make a point with unsupstantiated truthys, unless you work in the Bush administration.
BH
That IS a good article, John, and displays more than _possible_ insight :-).
gquaglia’s comments show yet again that many Mac users continue to believe that Macs are somehow intrinsically superior, apparently unaware that virtually ALL familiar software appears superior to the unfamiliar. As a longtime Windows user, I find the Mac interface quite bizarre. As for spyware and viruses, they are a reflection of Microsoft’s gigantic success.
Do I wish that MS products were better? You bet. Do I wish they were more like Macs? Spare me …
Robert
Interesting – that bias you mentioned.
On PC mag’s home page, I found 4 references to Apple, none of which appear in a non-scrollable area. But there are 9 references alone to MS or windows – 4 of which are in the non-scrollable area. On c|net news site, 3 mentions of Apple and 7 of Microsoft/Windows. 10,500 hits via Google’s News section for MS and 9,760 for “Apple Computer”.
I also noticed that on both the PC Mag site and the c|net site that there was at least one article about malware, spyware, or a critical patch.
I’m not sure I get the whole bias assertion
I don’t get it, are you mad over the praise you are getting or mad that he retracts from his statements, i.e. “possibly insightful”
I would have used sometimes instead of possibly.
😉
Its amazing how annoyed people are by John over the years but so many of my friends have changed their minds when they listen to him on TWIT.
Or as my buddy Gary said:”Maybe its because the other twits on that show are so bland but Dvorak is the only one who has the guts to have a different opinion.What used to annoy me about him seems now to be his strong suit.”
Stay the same and eventually everyone will be on your side.
Then they’ll put out a statue in your honour and the pigeons will crap on it and the cycle will start again….
Just to respond to Robert — because I think you’re trying to generalize your own set of likes and dislikes. I can do the same.
I’ve been computing as the core of my work since 1983. I still have my favorite pre-DOS machine in the closet [with an OS written by a guy named Bill Gates]. I’ve worked along through all the iterations of Windows from the beginning. Embraced the GUI. And, this year, bought the 1st Mac Mini in New Mexico — just to experiment with OS X. And never looked back. Now, we have 3 Macs in the house [my wife is a geek, too] — we gave away 2 of the 3 Windows boxes and keep the 3rd around just for the odd chance when we need it to run something uniquely MSoft.
It was easy. I’m pleased as hell with shedding arcane, over-complex software. The few new pieces of software I bought — were cheaper than MS peers. But, most important — to repeat — everything is easier. For me.
You’re right, John. How many times do you hear that in an average week 🙂 Now, being a writer and developer who uses a PC I think I should buy an ibook and set it up side by side with my PC. I’ll write 50% of the time on my PC and 50% of the time on the ibook with daily blogs about the experience for a solid month. I could set up a webcam so that anyone could watch my daily routine and verify that I am, in fact, using both machines without bias. At the end of the month, I’ll write an article. Not unlike the movie ‘Super Size Me’ but without all the grease.
What I don’t quite get is you complaining that Microsoft doesn’t get enough coverage after making several comments about how the company is doomed and needs to shut its doors. So…you want more coverage on how crappy they are?
That said, I think their Xbox division is going to get plenty of attention this holiday season. Seems like the one part of Microsoft that has an idea of how to do something right.
From personal experience and being friends with several former student journalists from WSU; I can see the links Dvorak noted as plain as day. However, I can’t see things getting too much worse. All of the WSU journalist students I knew (4 of them) had PCs in their apartments or dorm rooms, and were primarily provided Macs elsewhere. So they saw both worlds, but were defiantly pushed towards Macs. The older professors teaching English, journalism, and other related classes are very entrenched in their “Mac traditions.” Once you push the older, more change resistant crowd out, I think you may see some change. Of course, this is all assuming other major factors are not in the way of a change.
As for Dvorak and the going present discussion:
Bold? Always, one must be in the face of abounding naïveté.
Insightful? A norm for Dvorak, when not insightful, he is pointing out the obvious things that few tend to see or recognize.
Afterthoughts:
How to make a network administrator cry: Give him a Mac
How to make a journalist cry: Take away his Mac
How to make me cry: Only allow me one button on my mouse
note: One of my most annoying experiences was being forced to use an IMac for 2 weeks worth of English 402 technical writing classes while I was at WSU. I felt as if I was enclosed in a box, given a flashlight, a pad of paper, and a pencil with no eraser to write.
Ed, which operating system was it that BillG wrote? They BOUGHT all the interesting software they sell (DOS, Excel, IE, Visio, etc. etc. etc.)
And Robert, sorry but the viruses and security holes are NOT simply a reflection of their success. Take the server area: Apache has 3 TIMES the market share of IIS, and yet IIS has WAY WAY more exploits, holes, and vulnerabilities. It people writing malware were just aiming for the biggest target, to make sure their evilness hit the most people, don’t you think there would be more attacks on Apache?
Hey Dvorak, you gonna cough up that list of a dozen products Microsoft invented that the media ignored in favor of an Apple product? I’m having trouble finding them in between security notices, Vista delays, and the powerpc xbox 360.
Not to mention, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard a junk battle against Apple. I’m still waiting to hear your reasons for dropping Safari in favor of other browsers, considering you’re no where near a designer or a developer.
Many of us have multiple systems, with unbiased opinions… but please, show me something worth being excited about from Microsoft that was ignored? Office 12 got a little praise… but only a little, because it’s office 12. Aside from the dynamic toolbars, I see little advanced innovation… but it is, again, an Office program.
Your bias arguement can’t hold water if the competition is sparse.
I’m not sure why it is difficult to understand why Apple gets the press it does. The press latches on to fads that people will read or watch stories about. The iPod is pretty much it. In the mid 90’s, there was far less ink on Apple, because it was an un-hip company with no fad product.
Also, I’m not sure what kind of damage this bias does…I mean, does Dvorak really think that people won’t give Microsoft a chance? They own the whole market already, do they need sympathy press as well?
Why all the fuss about Apple? Well, why should there be so much fuss about Microsoft? afaik, they’ve never made a good mp3 player, music sorting/playing software and/or amazingly non-restrictive music store. No version of WIndows even comes close to OS X Tiger yet. XP has so many flaws that it looks like a piece of swiss cheese. Hmmm…
I especially like the amazing leap of logic at the end of your article about the Xbox 360. Hint: most people who love Apple are not gamers. It’s largely a completely different market.