This last year I’ve become increasingly aware of smallish media companies, one or two employees, that seem to be trying to eek out a living by simply commenting on social media trends, this blog occasionally included. I’m not sure how much of this is due to new companies sprouting up or just my own awareness and understanding of the marketspace. The question for me becomes how many sources can cover the same news? Main stream media often takes a bias slant on stories, covering politics or other topics from a conservative, liberal, centrist, libertarian or whatever slant. The coverage of the social media space is far to narrow and doesn’t often lead to differentiation based on ideologies.

Regardless, I think we’re reaching gluttonous proportions and are in danger of becoming an echo chamber, described by Shel Isreal and Robert Scoble in Naked Conversations. Social media is definitely a huge portion of the future technology scene right now and it deserves coverage – but I think we’re covering it too much. I’m watching multiple blogs cover the same news within a few minutes of each other and that’s the part that scares me.

Consider the following post from Facebook about birthday notifications. It was picked up by Inside Facebook with commentary on how it may impact applications providing similar services as did TechCrunch and allfacebook. The saddest part is that none of them are adding additional value. None of the coverage is ground breaking or adds any real value to the experience.

Want more proof? When the fbFund winners were announced it was picked up by nearly every site covering Facebook news. This is actually news worthy, thousands of dollars are being given away! However, with coverage like FaceReviews near regurgitation of Facebook’s announcement and list of winners, I’d say we’re in danger of becoming spam sites. Thankfully some sites are actually reporting on the apps and adding value to the conversation.

I suspect we’ll be seeing consolidation of these blogs soon as those sites that add value stay afloat in troubling times and the others either switch focus to their real strengths or wither and die.