Are Media Writers Biased Towards Apple? 747
Art Vanderlay writes "Readers should not be surprised by overcoverage of Apple Computers since the tech writers and columnists for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and Fortune are all Mac users. According to John Dvorak of PC Mag, no one seems to point out the connection between the skewed coverage and the existence of this peculiar conflict of interest based on the national writers' use of Macs. He feels the newsroom editors are generally so out of touch that they can't see this bias and are also Mac users." From the article: "This reality is not going to change. In fact it will only get worse as technology coverage is handed to newer, less-qualified observers who simply cannot use a Microsoft Windows computer. With no Microsoft-centric frame of reference, Microsoft cannot look good. The company essentially brought this on itself with various PR and marketing policies that discouraged knowledgeable coverage. I'll save those complaints for a future gripe session."
Ya think? (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't worry, I will post this anon.
Re:Ya think? (Score:3, Informative)
Just because people use the products or are even advocates of it doesnt mean they are bias in their work.
Likely DJ is upset at his major predictions being wrong and wants to blame someone besides himself. In the same way people blame the the liberal/conservative media when it suits them.
It Just Works (Score:5, Insightful)
I have used both platforms and have thrown my mouse against the wall with a "Fuck You Bill Gates" more than once and have never been so provoked by frustration with Mac. Is this due to media spin or my user experience?...I think the later.
Re:It Just Works (Score:3, Insightful)
It's because Apple hardware is to expensive to treat like that.
What about slashdot? (Score:2)
Re:What about slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)
but here it is just because it has "Apple" in the title
Unlike every Linux story.
EricAre clicks from China and India automatically invalid? [memwg.com]
Re:What about slashdot? (Score:4, Insightful)
Human Nature (Score:4, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Human Nature (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Human Nature (Score:3, Insightful)
The wording is off, there. Plenty of people are interested in Dell's product lines... I even keep an eye on their offerings. It's not that they don't care, it's that it's not exciting.
When Dell comes out with a new product, it's just like everyone else's new product, only in Midnight Gray. When Apple comes out with a new product, it's exciting.
What will it do? How much will it cost? Ooh, quad! Ooh, video.
I don't deny the bias, certainly. Apple get
Re:Human Nature also remember (Score:5, Funny)
"10 percent of computer users are Mac users, but remember, we are the top 10 percent."
- Douglas Adams
And yes, I selected that quote free from any bias whatsoever.
Re:Human Nature (Score:5, Insightful)
Alta-vista was big in the early search engines, but Google is the one still thriving. I don't even remember the name of the first company to come out with a MIDI card for PCs, but Creative is still going strong. There's lots of examples like that.
Apple is doing some things right these days and reaping the rewards. I don't have a problem with that.
Dell, however, has a different business focus. They're a commodity company and they're doing very well at what they do. There's room for both kinds of companies.
Re:Human Nature (Score:3, Insightful)
I believe it was Roland, and they're still going strong as well. (I actually have a Roland USB MIDI box connected to this machine). You may have been thinking of AdLib, which was the first cheap consumer sound card. The only way they could actually sell the original Sound Blaster was by saying it was "AdLib Compatible".
Re:Human Nature (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sorry, but this is a peeve of mine... If you offer superior design and usability, that's innovation. Innovation is not defined at the hardware level. Just because there was a HD-based mp3 player before iPod doesn't mean Apple wasn't innovative.
Re:Human Nature (Score:3, Insightful)
You guys...are way too emotional to be nerds
Pot, meet Kettle. Kettle, Pot.
Re:Human Nature (Score:3, Funny)
Another slashdotter said it best; You guys (mac users) are way too emotional to be nerds.
For Siddhartha's sake go back and reread your message and ask yourself how emotional you were being.
Re:Human Nature (Score:4, Informative)
Bzzzzt Wrong!
Before the iPod Apple made a stir with OS X, which was certainly not just some stylized rehash of any PC stuff. Before OS X (and even through today... well yesterday at least) Apple made a splash with the iMac which (while certainly done with a great deal of style) redefined what a consumer friendly computer could be (Easy to set up, easy to use (relatively), and will look good at home where people tend to care about those things).
The truth is since Steve returned with his NeXt compatriots Apple's been churning out lot of fantastic new products. Have you looked a Aperture which Apple announced yesterday? That product (unless there's some serious hidden bug in there somewhere) will totally rock the digital photography world. It's exactly the type of tool that everyones wanted and nobody made... Photoshop was resting on it market place domination and everyone else was trying to copy Photoshop.
Newton (Score:3, Funny)
After all, the Newton was just a rehash of...well...um...er...Oh yeah! Apple actually DEFINED the term PDA.
Once again, Dvorak is to be ignored. Why do people read his slanted crap anyway?
Re:Human Nature (Score:3, Informative)
But, what about the newton? what about the laser printer and desktop publishing? Things that came almost out of nowhere and were pioneered by Apple.
Re:Human Nature (Score:4, Informative)
If you want to get really technical, Mac OS X's relationship to BSD is that it runs a server on the XNU microkernel that creates a BSD-like environment for applications, it's not really even fair to say that OS X is based on BSD, let alone a stylised rehash of it. It has just taken elements from BSD and incorporated them into the operating system.
Re:Human Nature (Score:5, Insightful)
"It's not dull, it's Dell!"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Michael Dell, (555) 555-1212
DELL COMPUTER INTRODUCES NEW 3.2GHZ COMPUTER
Replacing their already fast and innovative 3.0 ghz computer, Dell announced today their new 3.2ghz computer, their fastest ever. Identical in every way with the previous model, other than the innovative new processor, the Dell 3.2ghz computer includes USB 2, FireWire and serial interfaces. The video card is specially designed to connect with the new color coordinated line of 17" and 19" monitors.
##
Okay, my friend.
Are you still awake?
Apple's announcements have certainly kept me awake lately.
The press really doesn't care about Apple. They care about good copy. They care about a news story people will read without falling asleep, since that's their job: To tell us about interesting stuff going on in the world. If they don't, well, we'll go somewhere else for our news.
Fair enough?
D
Re:Human Nature (Score:3, Interesting)
People sure have short memories. Not long ago, all the articles
Re:Human Nature (Score:4, Funny)
Re: Human Nature (Score:3, Insightful)
They will play MP3 though (Score:5, Interesting)
You can use the iPod and never once have a DRM song touch your player. I have hundreds of CD's and they ripped just fine to DRM free MP3's.
Re:Human Nature (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Human Nature (Score:3, Interesting)
The burning desire to make wonderful things is something you rarely see, and it's most often seen in private companies, not in free software. Every free software product I can think of but the GIMP is just a pale copy of something already designed by commercial organizations. And I think the GIMP created a user interface only its creators love.
I'm gla
HA! (Score:5, Insightful)
And HA!
I am astounded that such an astute observer as Dvorak didn't seem to pick up on the fact that the virulent "Apple is Dying" meme in the 90s was perpetuated primarily by PC-using columnists...
Re:HA! (Score:5, Insightful)
Is this a campaign?? (Score:3, Interesting)
What I find interesting is this story yesterday in the largest Swedish morning news paper and The Register. After a Dvorak column a few days earlier.
Is Dvorak (of all nitwits!) so much copied!? Is this some sort of campaign?
I remember reading at least a decade of rah rah articles about Microsoft, up to being declared guilty in their big trial. And quite a bit after.
(-: I mean, it is a well known phenomenon that big advertisers get terrible press
Re:HA! (Score:4, Interesting)
You have to separate the writing of articles/columns/books from the editing and layout tasks. The latter are normally done on Macs, yes, and that was a very natural evolution. The non-techies (think English majors, graphic design artists, etc.) found the Mac systems easier and more intuitive to use, so of course the software developers took note and developed software for that market. Seems like a perfect example of one company managing to dominate a vertical market. Kudos to Apple for that.
But how much of the writing is actually done on a Mac? Now, it may be that conventional journalists may use Macs more often than not, but I suspect most freelancers are using Windows systems. Or even Linux. And producing Microsoft Word documents more than likely. Almost everyone I've written for accepts Word documents, for many it's the preferred (often the only) format. (IBM being one exception, they want you to write it using XML, which actually can be more of a pain.)
Yes, it's ironic that most of the pro-Windows books out there today end up being edited and composited on Macs. But that's just the way the industry works today. I think calling it a bias is an exaggeration.
EricHow I keep my dogs safe in my yard [ericgiguere.com]
Re:HA! (Score:5, Interesting)
a) You can get Word (and nearly the entire Office suite) as an OS X application. Microsoft has, after all, been writing software for Apple longer than its been writing software for MS Windows.
b) As a journalist, I can tell you anecdotely that the proportion of reporters I see at conferences, etc., who use Macs versus those on PCs is much higher than in the general population.
c) In a lot of places the layout/design production end is at least partially integrated with the editorial end, so that articles can go into a system as manuscripts (i.e. Word documents), have a few rounds of edits and get laid out all in one tracking system. This also allows editors to do screen edits: i.e. we can't change any of the graphical elements, but we can still edit text ourselves even after its been laid out in something like Quark. This is great when you have to do someting like shorten an article by 5 lines to make it fit the available space: it's something only an editor can do, and it saves having to have us stand over the shoulder of a layour person.
that's a refreshing change (Score:3, Interesting)
So bloke writing for a Windows Mag... (Score:5, Insightful)
Decides that writers are all using Macs, are biased and of course must be wrong.... because they have no frame of reference unlike himself who works for a magazine that talks of Windows Vista as being the second coming.
Hello Pot... have you met kettle?
Re:So bloke writing for a Windows Mag... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:So bloke writing for a Windows Mag... (Score:5, Funny)
He hates Apple, yet everything he ever says about them turns out to be spectacularly false. So he decided to try writing that they'd be successful, in the hopes that they'd immediately go out of business. It didn't work, so he's gone back to bashing them.
Dvorak whines again. (Score:4, Insightful)
This reality is not going to change. In fact it will only get worse as technology coverage is handed to newer, less-qualified observers who simply cannot use a Microsoft Windows computer.
Perhaps these happy Mac users are former Windows users? Dvorak is going on a limb by assuming they're techo-illiterates who haven't used Windows.
Re:Dvorak whines again. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Dvorak whines again. (Score:5, Insightful)
Dvorak has always been a fairly clueless commentator, but lately he seems to have been exceeding his previous best efforts. This is in line with his recent 'misses the point entirely' would-be hatchet-job on Creative Commons.
Dvorak is too old an industry hand not to know how things work. Quite aside from whatever Apple's doing behind the scenes to encourage people to write about them (or encourage editors to demand stories on Apple), there's the fact that Apple is currently The Story. They've turned their business and their stock price around, they have a charismatic leader (Jobs) and a charismatic product (iPod), and they're aggressively rolling out new products which can be expected to sell well. Whether you want to write an "It can't last" or a "Apple is unstoppable" story, there's lots of material for even the laziest journo to work with. Whereas most journalists realize that writing a "Vista still isn't close to being ready, but it'll be really wonderful when it is." story looks a little ridiculous. ("Still not king. [livejournal.com]")
It's worth remembering that not so long ago, Apple was getting a lot of coverage and none of it was good. I've always wondered how much of the Apple crisis of the '90s that nearly sunk the company before His Steveness came riding to the rescue was actually caused by the negative coverage they got, and how much of that negative coverage was 'encouraged' by certain interested parties (no names, no pack drill). If I'm right that a certain amount of that coverage was the product of someone whispering in the shell-like ears of the industry editors that they might like to run a few more "Apple is doomed" stories, then presumably those same someones will be back when Vista is good and ready, and we'll see nothing but "Microsoft triumphant" and "Vista changes the future of humanity" stories for six solid months.
Coverage has everything to do with what the editors decide is The Story this week. It has nothing to do with today's journalists being Apple-centric because (unlike John "Manly Man" Dvorak) they're too wimpish to go mano-a-mano with a balky Windows box and don't know what real computing is. Nice try, John, but you're still talking rubbish.
I sense a new '... is dying' (Score:3, Interesting)
Heh. Now there's an argument the WinMedia didn't use against Linux. I'm not sure it speaks well of Windows though.
Meanwhile, some of the Unix sysadmins I know have recently switched to a Mac.
Therefore, if the non-technological end of the market goes to Apple because they 'simply cannot use a Microsoft Windows computer' and the tech-savvy are running Linux
Bias (Score:3, Interesting)
The vast majority of the world has a Microsoft bias (myself included, sadly, tho I have an offsetting Unix bias as well
Since MS users are trained to handle an overly obtuse interface, we find Apple interfaces simplistic and limiting.
Min
what hasn't been covered? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:what hasn't been covered? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:what hasn't been covered? (Score:5, Insightful)
Vista is so slow coming out the gates, I expect it to ship with Nukem. No one cares about MSN search because we have google. As most admins, I associate hotmail with spam. A new windows media player is nothing to celebrate: Why would we? It's like they achieved all the functionality you might need at about 6, and from there on out it's been all about adding bloat. IE: It's starting to play feature catchup with firefox, hardly news.
So none of this is really news, and most of it is old garbage.
In Other News... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In Other News... (Score:5, Funny)
He is, however, perfectly and innately qualified to speak about Windows.
Mac bashing? (Score:2)
Re:Mac bashing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft's got a horizontal monopoly, but it looks like Apple's going for the vertical monopoly.
There's nothing wrong with operating a monopoly per se - and in the Microsoft case the problem was never with Microsoft being a monopoly - the DoJ case was brought because it was alleged that Microsoft had abused its monolpoly position.
In other words, wake me up not when Apple have a monolpoly, but when they start abusing their monolpoly position.
Already abusing monopoly (Score:5, Funny)
By refusing to increase the price of songs and albums on the iTunes Music Store, these people now have a hard time scraping a living and feeding their children.
I think it is time for the DoJ to step in and end this unfair business practice.
Re:Mac bashing? (Score:3, Interesting)
I also use iTunes, becuase honestly, it does two things that I want -- plays MP3s and keeps my iPod synced, and otherwise doesn't irritate me or inundate me with ads.
I'll probably choose to use Photoshop, because Gimp (and MacGimp) are limited to 8-bits-per-pixel and have crap for color management.
Why ar
Dvorak, I consider you my archdioc^H^H^H^Hnemesis. (Score:2, Insightful)
Also behold E3, one of MS' few opportunities to introduce cool new hardware like Apple does every five minutes.
John Dvorak Filter (Score:5, Interesting)
instead... (Score:3, Funny)
Eh, just read a different columnist. I'm a big fan of Bob Qwerty, he seems to have his head screwed on right.
*runs for cover*
Oh, please. (Score:5, Insightful)
> connection between the skewed coverage and the existence of this peculiar
>conflict of interest based on the national writers' use of Macs.
So Mac users are biased and have a conflict of interest, while Microsoft users don't? That's ridiculous to suggest that someone can't be objective if they use a particular platform.
I knew that person who used to accuse me of being platform-biased since I use a Mac. I ignored it until once I responded to him, "Look, I purchased Microsoft Office, I purchased Microsoft Windows to work with Virtual PC. I have no problems using Windows, Linux, or whatever. I even own Microsoft stock. How much Microsoft stuff do I have to own for you to considered me unbiased?"
> From the article: "This reality is not going to change. In fact it will only get
> worse as technology coverage is handed to newer, less-qualified observers
> who simply cannot use a Microsoft Windows computer.
Dvorak's just trying to troll. Dvorak admitted years ago that he trolled for responses: calling the iBook a makeup case (1999), writing articles about fake dreams ("In my dream, Jobs was in line at a movie theater with Bill Gates..." from 1998), and my favorite,
He's just doing it again. Moreover, he's claiming "bias" without suitable proof -- and the burden of proof on Dvorak is a lot greater than "I could list 50". Hey, John, if you really think your fellow columns and analysts are biased, then name names. But waving around your secret list in order to troll is silly.
Crying bias! is just Dvorak's way of crying for help.
Perhaps... (Score:5, Insightful)
The "press" is human as well, and I would find it hard to fault them for acting that way. To sum it up - a company that generally has interesting media events has another coming up. Wouldn't you be inclined to pay attention?
MS Day ???? (Score:5, Funny)
5 MS Stories on Slashdot homepage, many looking like marketing speak
Slashdot hire a MS PR Guy as of late ?
Of course... (Score:5, Insightful)
This says a lot.
People who write about technology are going to know a lot about it, and so they are going to be in a better informed position to choose what is best because they have both seen a lot of technology and thought about it a lot. They choose Macs.
Dvorak writes for a Windows magazine...
Re:Of course... (Score:4, Insightful)
Owning a screwdriver does not make you an engineer or a "technology expert".
Re:Of course... (Score:3, Informative)
Really? Aren't even the Slashdot editors bragging about their shiny new Macs? I see former Linux users talking about how they switched to Mac all the time here on Slashdot.
If you conveniently ignore the fact
Re:Of course... (Score:5, Insightful)
> Spoken like a true Mac cultist. Those who know a lot about technology build their own machines and, nowadays, are putting GNU/Linux and other free software OSes on them.
Here's my history. 20 years in IT systems and network management for government labs up through fortune 100 companies. I cut my teeth on VAX VMS and fortran coding. Since then I have managed SunOS, Solaris, HP/UX, AIX, Irix, Ultrix, Linux, all flavors of Windows, old MacOS, and new BSD based MacOS. Right now I am a consultant who is part of a team managing 500 Solaris, HP/UX, AIX, and Redhat Linux servers. In networking, I am proficient in Cisco, F5, and Checkpoint management.
I consider myself tech savy. For most of my professional life I have had some flavor of unix system at home (SunOS or Solaris mostly) and a Mac. I have never built my own PC. I have no intention of wasting that kind of time. I also find the amount of time needed for the care of feeding of Linux too much.
You do NOT speak for the tech savy.
> In fact, I've met tech journalists that hate Apple and all that they stand for. Apple computers have never been geared toward the tech savvy; they have always been marketed to the artistic technophobe.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The Apple gui was a godsend to the physicists and engineers back at the national lab I worked at. We wrote a lot of C code on those old Macs. It is often the system of choice for professional unix system admins.
It appears that a technophobe to you is anyone who doesn't use Linux. Who's the cultist?
> And, as a computer hardware expert, I will attest to the fact that Macintosh computers are no better engineered or manufactured than Dell systems, and in fact I would actually put them a cut below Dell because of the problems their overstyled chassis designs cause. You have it completely backwards.
As a computer expert, I don't use PC hardware if I can avoid it. Windows or Linux. I get paid by the hour to get work done. My 12" Powerbook is perfect to carry around to the office or datacenter.
> I am a technology writer, and I know a lot of technology writers. Most use Linux or Windows because that's their beat and it's hard to write about a platform that you don't use. But unless they write for an Apple-centric pub, tech journalists do not usually use Macs, especially the most tech-savvy of the lot.
I fear that you are stuck in a world of PC hardware. Please do us all a favor and get some real tech experience before spouting off.
jfs
Re:Of course... (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh what utter bullshit. I just recently got my Master's in Computer Science and I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of both grad students and professors were enthusiastic about Macs and OS X. While going to school I had an assistantship helping out doing software development for the Imaging Science department. The software was targeted to run on many flavors of UNIX: Linux, Solaris, Irix (I think they still supported this) and OS X. You know what many of the grad students, developers and System Admins worked with and talked a lot about with admiration? You guessed it... OS X. I've lost count how many times I've been on Slashdot and heard engineers with a lot of experience using computers to get their work done - not technical idiots at all - saying how productive they were working with Macs.
I'm sorry, but I don't consider people who primarily like to tinker around building their own personal computers to be the ultimate elite in the computer technology realm. Wankers at best. Look, if I need my own UNIX-based server I'd opt for a machine I'd build myself and install Linux on. But when it comes to a workstation to get day-to-day work done, I prefer a Mac.
Re:Of course... (Score:3, Informative)
I'm an experienced tech journalist too, and before OS X, yeah, I was all about building my own white boxes, and sticking Linux on them. But then along came OS X, and I mostly stopped doing that because, after all, I'm getting paid to be a writer, not be a sys-admin, and OS X Just Works in a way that Linux doesn't. Plus it'll run a native version of Microsoft Word alongsid
Gripe session (Score:2)
Good indications that a story is not worth your time:
1. It ends with the above quote
Is it just not possible to post a story without invective? Can we not have stories that are not "gripe sessions" or full of "complaints"? What happened to "news for nerds, stuff that matters"? Gripe sessions and complaints are not news. This story had so much potential to be good, but, like so much in the media (especially sports reporting), a good story is rui
Unsurprising (Score:3, Insightful)
My Favorite Dvorak Quote (Score:5, Funny)
"The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a 'mouse'. There is no evidence that people want to use these things."
enough said
Re:My Favorite Dvorak Quote (Score:3, Funny)
Re:My Favorite Dvorak Quote (Score:3, Funny)
I seem to remember the top letters being S T F U N E W B... Dvorak was ahead of his time.
Re:My Favorite Dvorak Quote (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, it's a common misconception that John C. Dvorak was the creator of the Dvorak keyboard. The Dvorak keyboard layout was actually invented in the 1930s by August Dvorak, an educational psychologist and distant relation to the composer Antonin Dvorak.
Just from the write up (RTFA later) (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmmm.... so people who like Macintoshes enough to use them should be disqualified from voicing their opinions because they've demonstrated a preference for Macs? Any possibility that, you know, they use Macs for good reason?
This reality is not going to change. In fact it will only get worse as technology coverage is handed to newer, less-qualified observers who simply cannot use a Microsoft Windows computer. With no Microsoft-centric frame of reference, Microsoft cannot look good.
Ok, so, I think I'm beginning to understand. You need some genius-level technical prowess to get a Windows computer to work, so as coverage is turned over to normal people, they're bound to prefer Macintoshes. Without being Microsoft-biased, Microsoft cannot look good.
The company essentially brought this on itself with various PR and marketing policies that discouraged knowledgeable coverage.
Huh? Which company? Apple? So Apple "brought this on themselves", the 'this' being good press, by various marketing/PR policies? In other words, their marketing/PR is effective? Is that a criticism?
Or does he mean Microsoft brought it on themselves by marketing with FUD? And finally...
He feels the newsroom editors are generally so out of touch that they can't see this bias and are also Mac users.
From the news I see, I'd say editors are generally so out of touch that they can't see any of their biases. Or else they're paid off by their advertisers, as PC Magazine seems to be.
I RTFA (Score:5, Funny)
Why would that be weird? Is it weird if the entire newsroom were Microsoft Machines? Would it be weird if they were all Dells?
I often confront these guys with this assertion, and they, to a man (I've never confronted a female reporter about this),
Wait... I just need to stop here. Why do we care if he's ever asked a woman? Ok, forget it, let's go back...
I often confront these guys with this assertion, and they, to a man (I've never confronted a female reporter about this), all say that they use a Mac "because it is better." Right. And that attitude doesn't affect coverage now, does it?
Yeah, so when a tech columnist sits down to write an article about new/cool technology (sort of their job), they choose to write about the technology that they, as professionals, believe to be "better". Yeah, I'm still completely failing to see the problem here.
Microsoft should make some headway with this biased crowd once the fanciful Xbox 360 arrives. It's got a creative GUI, is easy to use and navigate, and kind of has a Mac look to it. It also interfaces perfectly with the iPod. "Oh golly gee whiz wow!" And that feature alone will be the clincher.
If he's so utterly unbiased, why does he care so much when Microsoft will 'get their due'. And, well, yes, it's been a while since a release of Windows or Office, so releasing their first major product in several years will probably get them into tech columns. Having a great GUI and the ability to interface with the most popular MP3 player around certainly won't hurt. So... what's all the whining about?
Go off-topic with John C. Dvorak
Oh, he's not just off-topic, he's irrelevant, and apparently a bit out of his mind as well.
Well, David Pouge used to edit MacWorld (Score:5, Insightful)
Ease of use? (Score:3, Insightful)
But I thought Windows was supposed to be easy to use... Perhaps Dvorak is right, and everyone who isn't a CS major should give up Windows and switch to Macs.
Good idea, John!
Whisky Tango Foxtrot (Score:5, Insightful)
Dvorak didn't just jump the shark with this one, he did a backflip, danced on its snout, and drank a tall glass of Microsoft Kool-Aid while doing it...
First of all, "it will only get worse as technology coverage is handed to newer, less-qualified observers who simply cannot use a Microsoft Windows computer"? Is Dvorak really insinuating that only the elite use Windows these days? I mean, c'mon, by virtual of nothing less than market share Windows is used by the vast majority of people who still wonder what that cup holder thingy is supposed to do. Mac users by and large tend to be infinitely more technically astute than Windows users. His argument as as asinine as it comes here.
The fact is that Macintosh has undoubtedly attracted a large following with members of the media. Dvorak's essential thesis is right on the money. Time might as well be a division of Apple's PR department. Walter Mossberg gives glowing reviews to anything Apple. David Pogue at The New York Times tends to be a big Apple booster as well. Apple users are known for their fanatical devotion to the brand, and Apple has a lot more mindshare in the media industry than Microsoft.
The problem with Dvorak's article is that it takes a good argument and turns it into a piece with all the coherency and logic of a USENET troll. Let's face it, at least Apple boosters are part of the in crowd. People who continually make such ad hominem excuses for the fact that Microsoft is losing mindshare at a massive rate end up looking like a bunch of crochety Kool-Aid guzzlers. Yes, Apple has a disproportionate influence in the media, but its hard to argue with the fact that much of it is due to the fact that they make a better set of products and they work harder to ensure customer loyalty than Microsoft.
windows == difficult to use? (Score:5, Insightful)
doesn't that, sort of, imply that windows is too difficult to, you know, use?
The upperdog ain't getting no love. (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure if this is as true for Macs, but it probably enters the equation somehow. If the writer says "I would never give up my Mac for anything, and I hate Microsoft and Linux even if they were better, yada yada", there's certainly some emotional bias involved, and they should probably think twice about their journalistic integrity before submitting the review for publication. Certainly the _editors_ should be concerned about the reputation of their publication.
Ideally, a computer review shouldn't be just one person's thoughts on it - they would have a team of three or four people (the gamer, the journalist, the businessman, the IT guy) that each post their own thoughts on how the computer performs for them, and how well it meets their expectations given cost. They should be reasonably open-minded about different operating systems, and also be skilled with all of them (not as hard as it sounds, really).
-Erwos
Re:Maybe (Score:3, Interesting)
Second funniest Slashdot topic of all time. (Score:4, Insightful)
Umm, all the PC Magazines are published and printed with Macs, and always have been. Doesn't stop them from writing about Microsoft, the x86PC, or any of that stuff. A lot of ads for PCs, PC gear, PC software, etc are laid up on Macs. Doesn't stop them from selling PC gear.
What's changed is the company and it's products (Apple); in particular the iPod. In fact, the player is really the one responsible; everyone, including PC users, seems to have bought one and that's what's creating the buzz. Before the iPod, people kind-of-sort-of knew there was probably a difference but didn't really pay attention. Now, they are curious and the media simply reflects that by talking about it more (a lot more).
Is it only me who noticed that Dvorak is writing about Macs in an article about too much Mac coverage?
C'mon Slashdot, give us a Dvorak checkbox... (Score:5, Insightful)
It has been patently obvious for years now that Dvorak [google.com] is intentionally caustic to generate banner ad impressions on his web column. DON'T FEED THE TROLLS.
Dvorak has a Reality Distortion Field, too. (Score:5, Insightful)
Writers are biased towards writers. (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a natural bias, that authors of given media are creating works about their media. And since media writers use macs, they write about macs. Nothing strange here.
Give me a break (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple gets a lot of coverage right now because a) they have new products to cover right now, b) they have a history of important innovation, c) they are one of the largest computer makers in the world, and d) they are succeeding at a strategy that all computer makers are trying--transitioning to a large consumer electronics company.
This is surprising.... why? (Score:3, Insightful)
Dvorak: Never tired of being wrong (and a troll) (Score:3, Insightful)
Journalists prefer Macs now because Apple has gotten their shit together since the advent of OS X and the iPod, and has been putting out good stuff. The journalists have found modern Macs usable enough to try them out for longer periods of time, and have found that they like what they're seeing. Historically, people who have a decent amount of experience* with both platforms overwhelmingly prefer Macs.
~Philly
* "Decent amount of experience" = Having done actual work on a Mac, not spent 5 minutes playing around with a one in an Apple Store before prnouncing it 'lame' or 'stupid' and going home to their 'leet gaming rig.
Makes sense (Score:5, Interesting)
Scratch that, reverse it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering the source... (Score:5, Interesting)
After years of Dvorak's predictions of doom and gloom about the demise of beleagured Apple, he's probably just pissed that his predictions weren't only wrong, but that Apple's enjoying some success. So he does what everyone else does--blame it on the media.
go Astros!
Some corollaries (Score:3, Insightful)
If one's choice of hardware and operating system play such a key role in determining their journalistic bias, then it might usefully be argued that journalists and newsrooms that use Microsoft software running on Intel hardware would find it impossible to view Apple software & hardware in a positive light.
If this is so, then it might also explain the second-banannadom that Apple has suffered over the years. Mod me down if you like, O Macolytes, but part of the fervency of your devotion is that, for many years, you have gotten short shrift in the press, in the form of constant ruminations of Apple's imminent collapse. At best, Apple was damned with faint praise.
Personally, I think the present fuss has more to do with Apple's absolutely killer marketing and branding, which far surpass anything that the competition has yet been able to muster up. Their Stalinist level of control over everything--software, hardware, accessories, look, feel, heft, etc--has given their products a very consistent look across all lines. Even the name "Apple," is technical, nonthreatening, and cuddly.
It's interesting how this bias works... (Score:5, Insightful)
So what he's saying is that mac writers are biased towards the benefit of Apple... They have Apple computers, they use Apple computers, they like Apple computers, and so they write about Apple in a positive way.
Now, think about the bias of windows users. They have Windows, they use Windows, they hate Windows, they write about Microsoft in a negative way (or not at all).
This is not just about bias because Apple computers are what people happen to use at the time. This is bias because Apple has created a product that its users appreciate. This is why Apple is in a position right now where its products are almost universally lauded, while Microsoft's are often reviled. The media reflects this.
It's Microsoft not living up to peoples' expectations, while Apple gives them a superior experience (and the people are glad for it). So yes, I guess you could say that people are biased towards getting what they want.
As far as I'm concerned it's not bias, it's karma.
~D
Dvorak's taking a note from the neocons (Score:3, Insightful)
Just like the oh-so-threatened christians out there, the PC users are being oppressed by the nasty minority! Woe is them! Oh, the humanity! The unjustness of it all!
How dare this minority continue to exist and, worse, be noticed!
All this overcoverage of Apple... (Score:4, Funny)
Dvorak makes claims with NO support (Score:4, Insightful)
But in typical Dvorak fashion, provides no evidence to support his positions. Where are the hard numbers that he based his conclusions on? There aren't any, because he pulls his supposed "facts" out his ass and presents them to the world. Typical Dvorak BS.
"...90 percent of the mainstream writers being Mac users..." --- Support your facts John. Where'd you get your numbers?
"I could list 50." -- So, then there's only 55 newspaper and magazine tech writers in the media? What a load of crap.
Beleaguered No More. (Score:3, Informative)
A decade ago, about one decade after the launch of the Macintosh, virtually EVERY mention of Apple by the press attached the adjective "beleaguered" to the word "Apple." It was as if the press had universally decided to change the name of the company to "Beleaguered Apple Computer Inc." They spoke in glowing terms about such industry darlings as Gateway and Compaq. (heh) Mr. Dvorak, who spent a stint as a columnist at MacUser magazine in the Mac's first peak years ('88-'94), followed the herd and became the tech journalism's leading Apple-basher. He, more than any other industry pundit took it to the logical extreme and repeatedly pronounced Apple dead. Or near dead. Or almost nearly kind of dead. Over, and over and over again.
Now, Jobs has managed to turn Apple around, and make it into an industry leader once again. Mr. Dvorak's favorite monopolists have become the General Motors of the tech industry (read: bland, predictable, flawed, and boring - producing pablum with zero innovation or appeal.) The herd is all flocking to Apple now. Big deal.
Now Dvorak has stopped writing anything particularly useful, and his just become a industry gadfly; saying stupid things to piss people off. He hasn't stopped beating this anti-Apple drum for the past 10 years. Why? It gets him attention. That is all. He has decided to just be a black sheep. Same herd, just a different coat. Just because.
The thing that is odd, is that in some ways he was right. Apple is dead. The old, Performa/Quadra/Michael Spindler/John Sculley/Pink/Taligent/Copland Apple is dead. The Apple of today is nothing like the Apple of a decade ago. Nothing. Thank Jobs.
The technology journalists aren't "biased" they are just praising a set of quality products from a quality company. The fact that they actually USE the products isn't a bias, it just is.
--chuck
Apple's Back! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:People write about what they are enthusiastic (Score:4, Insightful)
I think I know the answer as to why there are not more "enthusiastic" windows users. It's not strictly because of a lack of material to be excited about. The prevailing geek culture absolutely prevents it. The prevailing culture is so biased, yes biased, against Microsoft that anybody claiming to be a MS enthusiast in not-so-proverbially booed off the proverbial stage. I am not being a troll, and I am not claiming at all that at least part of that bias is justified, I am just saying that's the way the wind blows. And most geeks are no less susceptible to cultural pressure than anybody else... maybe even more susceptible.
Re:Less-qualified (Score:3, Interesting)
I might even go so far as to suggest that most people who use macs -- and I mean acutally USE them to do real work -- spend more time in their Terminal window than a windows user of the same caliber. Is it because of a failing of the "simplistic" UI that doesnt bother the user with 1000 options that will be used by a
Re:Less-qualified (Score:3, Interesting)
* Adobe Photoshop
* Adobe Illustrator
* Adobe InDesign
* Quark xPress
* Digidesign ProTools
* Apple Logic
* Steinberg Cubase/Nuendo
Re:Less-qualified (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:If it bleeds it leads (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm hoping you're aware of the circularity of that argument, given that the subject is media bias towards Apple?