Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Andrew Breitbart’s Big sites (ahem, like the one you’re reading right now) have replaced the average news junky’s old school fixes of newsprint and the 5 o’clock news.
Why not? It’s a fast, easy, and mostly free way to communicate and share information. Anyone can contribute, and everyone else can choose to listen, watch, or read at will. It’s a beautiful free market system – anyone can try and anyone can buy.
The mainstream media has paid attention, and bloggers like Erick Erickson, Dana Loesch, and Andrew Breitbart himself are now regular media fixtures. They are informed, they have opinions, they share share them, and have gained a following. Media outlets saw the demand for their insight, and offered them CNN commentary jobs, radio hosting opportunities, and book deals.
The mainstream entertainment industry is paying attention too.
One of my favorite channels for both informative and entertainment purposes is the Food Network. Come on, who doesn’t love the fierce competition of Chopped, or Alton Brown’s scientific explanations of why yeast rises using sock puppets? Pure enjoyment, my friends!
The Food Network has recently signed on a new host who found her roots in blogging. Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, has become a household name in the land of stay-at-home-moms, with her fantastic recipes, funny family stories, and narratives about life on a working cattle ranch.
When the Food Network featured a Bobby Flay Thanksgiving Throwdown Special with one of my favorite blogging mamas, I practically squealed. Ree was fun to watch on camera, sharing bits and pieces of her crazy ranching life in between cooking up a storm.
I’m guessing that a zillion others across the country felt the same way I did, because the suits at the Food Network have signed Mrs. Drummond on the their 2011-2012 season for her own show, Pioneer Woman.
It’s a whole new world out there, thanks to the free market of social media. If you have something to say, you can say it, and if you’re good at it, you can build an audience without a fancy degree, sleeping your way to the top, or even spending a dime. A homeless man with a golden voice can get millions of hits on YouTube and be offered a job as a radio announcer, and a homeschooling mom can get her own show on the Food Network.
America is still the land of opportunity. Now, what will you blog about today?
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