Theory of Media Worth & Blog Quality

This is my humble theory of media value:

Amount Learned + Amount of Entertained
--------------------------------------------------------- = Worth Index
Time Spent

Put another way this is just Utility/Time = Worth. But in media, I think there are two distinct factors of utility - learning and entertainment. I make no claim to be the first person to notice or pontificate about this relationship. I am sure that someone has already demonstrated and done more to prove the theorem than I could.

I think that this equation applies to all kinds of media from television to movies to blogs to classes in school.

For instance: The piece of media I have consumed recently with the highest worth index is an audio briefing from The Stanford Channel on The Power of Persuasion. The briefing took 60 minutes and covered in scientific and entertaining detail those factors social, and psychological which will get people to say yes to a request. It was grounded in scientific research, it was applicable to my life, and it was very entertaining and witty.

Perhaps someone out there has better programming skills than I do and could help create a vote counter for blogs. It would be a small applet you put in the bottom of a blog post that asks four questions:

1. How long was this blog entry: 1) Too long, 2) Just Right 3) Too Short
2. How entertaining was this entry: 1) Incredibly 2) Very 3) Somewhat 2) Not Very 1) Not At All
3. How informative/educational was this entry: 1) Incredibly 2) Very 3) Somewhat 2) Not Very 1) Not At All
4. Were there factual errors in this post: 1) Yes 2) No (if yes, ask them to explain)
   

Then the votes would be tallied and shown on the blog post, as well as tracked on a central website where you could go to to find which blogs in the blogosphere are the most entertaining or useful.

Somebody? Anybody? email me at retireat30@gmail.com.