As a journalism major I constantly hear about the horrors of blogging via my professors. Their rational is bloggers are not journalists, they are biased and they play fast and loose with the facts. Recently, accomplished journalist Dan Thomasson visited my media ethics class. When I asked him what he thought about blogs he was not positive. He characterized this rise of new media as "a very disturbing period of time."
This is a close-minded view of blogs. Blogs are the equivalent of the op-ed page; the difference is that the audience can usually respond to the story and other’s readers responses to the story. Any intelligent person can tell if a person has thought out a response to a complex issue or is just regurgitating partisan talking points. Any hint of poorly thought out opinion will be ridiculed and attacked. I think that the fact that the readers know a bloggers political leaning prior to reading makes it more ethical. Traditional media claims to be objective while blogs are honest about their bias.
To be sure, there are partisan blogs that reset talking points but only partisan people who do not want objectivity would limit themselves to those blogs. Blogs acknowledge that readers do not want passive participation but rather they desire to have their voice heard as well. Traditional media outlets choose to insulate themselves from their audience reserving their participation to a few “letters to the editor” that will be printed. While news editors continue their role as gate keeper; blogs invite the masses to join the discussion through a much bigger gate.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Good topic - Great post!!!
I think blogs really hit a nerve with the media. The media are generally left leaning. Blogs span the spectrum of political idealogy. Blogs have made the job of the media harder by exposing stories or viewpoints that the media sometimes ignore. The media don't like having the fire kept at their feet. The have choosen to attack the blogs rather than enter the debate with them. To be sure, there are a good number of blogs that spew idealogy. Some are even loose with the facts. But as you point out, a discerning reader can pick up on that.
The meda are also annoyed that people are turning off their TVs and lining their bird cages with newspapers. Many are getting their news from the internet.
Media are not left leaning. They suck up to whomever is in power. If the media was that left leaning, then we'd have impeachment hearings already because of the war in Iraq being done under false pretenses. Ever notice how comfy even guys like Woodward and Bernstein are with this White House? If the press is so liberal, why has the NY Times sat for at least a year on 2 different stories that were bad news for Bush & Co.? Why does the NY Times employ two of this WH's two biggest cheerleaders(Judith Miller and Elizabeth Busmiller)?
Post a Comment