A blog, like a newspaper column, is just a medium that can be used for all sorts of content.

Bad blogs, like bad newspaper columns, are self-indulgent crap

But good blogs, like good newspaper columns, provide an expert’s or practitioner’s insight on issues in some niche topic.

The difference between bad bloggers and bad columnists is that most of the former are generally not paid make no pretense of being professional writers. Which makes the latter that much more inexcusable.

It must be difficult, though, to define ‘the bigger picture’, especially when you are required to provide some kind of original comment on a weekly basis. Also, some of the results, although inane, are occasionally just as comical as Cath Janes’ comments. I agree, though, that the columnists who try to sound like experts; try to sound like we really should give a damn about what they think about any topic, regardless of how much they know about, can be very tedious and annoying.

That is where blogs have the slight advantage. You are narrowing your scope down to just one area where you have some expertise. Instead of trying to provide informed comment on topics as diverse as, for example, the McCann case one week, troop movements in Afghanistan the next and how tediously pointless Sudoku is the next, you can talk with confidence about one specific area whenever you have something informed and interesting to say.