The advent of technology and the internet has stirred up the world of journalism. With blogs and Twitter increasing in popularity, many citizens now have the chance to spread news and information across the world instantly. As society moves from a position of passive observation to active participation, critics of new media chastise citizen journalists for not being credible with their information, as well as thief's to the work of journalists who investigate matters and are paid to cover the news. Although the new media is not fully understood, what is certain is that millions of people around the world are learning more about their world due to citizen journalists and bloggers.
Blogs have become a rising trend since the 21st century. Evan Williams, who runs Blogger, told Wired in the article Blah, Blah, Blah and Blog, “In January alone, at least 41,000 people created new blogs using Blogger, and that number is always increasing,” Williams said. “Some have put the total number of weblogs at more than 500,000.” Blogs are used as a means for people to write about things that interest them. Generally, most blogs are specific to certain genre's, such as music, art, or sports, which allows creators to write about topics that they care about. The credibility of the information that is written is a cause for concern however, and with specific genre's being written about by one author, a bias will usually prevail in their writing. One of the key aspects of journalism lies in the journalist being transparent in their writing so that the story is told as it happened and lets the reader interpret the information however they please. When discovering a blog, it is usually due to searching for a specific topic of interest. An Oilers fan will want to read about another person's theories on the poor performance of the Oilers latest season, whereas a journalist will only dictate the Oilers progress in the season and will not provide personal insight into the topic. Blogs are not trying to replace the true journalistic fashion that is provided in newspapers, but rather they are assets that can be utilized for insight and discovery into certain topics that cannot be found outside of an editorial section in a newspaper.
Like the mysteries of the universe, the deep challenges and possibilities of new media can be scary to venture into. Arianna Huffington said at a workshop How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?, "The contributions of citizen journalists, bloggers, and others who aren't paid to cover the news are constantly mocked and derided by the critics of new media.” Without a definitive understanding of the role that blogs and twitter have in the scheme of news on the internet, citizen journalists are being devalued and insulted for their work towards educating people. Although the bloggers might not have a full story to publish, or perhaps they are missing some of the facts, common sense is enough for readers to know if what they are reading is fictitious or misleading. The hatred is not tied only to unaffiliated bloggers, but as was the case with Fangoria, a large horror genre magazine, the bias was also directed to one of their old writers James Zahn. Zahn wrote about the attitude received while writing for their website, “Most competing websites, and later the staff of Fangoria.com were frowned upon by the magazine staff as “bloggers”, effectively looked at as “scum” not good enough to be considered proper “journalists” or “writers.” The blatant disrespect that Zahn received from coworkers in the same company was disrespectful and unwarranted. The ignorance of the magazine staff about online publication shows that the use of new media is still unknown to most within the industry. Without respect, the vast amounts of content created by citizen journalists could dry up if they leave their blogs due to a lack of respect.
The creation of new technology has allowed devices such as the iPhone and other smart-phones to be direct lines for creating and updating online content due to internet access, built-in camera and video capturing. A statistic at Phonemag.com shows that 173.6 million smartphone's were sold in 2008, more than ever do people have the tools required to capture and report events as they unfold on the field. With citizen journalists providing timely current events, people across the world can quickly know what is happening in the world. In Cell Journalism by Carolynne Burkholder tells us that journalists can piece together facts through interviews to recreate events that had happened, “But when the London Underground was bombed on July 7, 2005, photos of the event were published on websites and blogs, and made their way to the mainstream media. It was the people with camera cell phones that captured the images, not reporters.” Citizen journalists are great assets to the world because with anyone with a cellphone can document the facts as they unfold so that not only will journalists have a more accurate set of information to refer to when recreating the events for a story, but the public will also have the facts as its reported, which in turn can protect the public because they will know to avoid the subway such as with the London bombings.
The online realms is still in its infancy as it learns and adapts with the challenges produced by the world. As more and more services come out that allow people to share their ideas, document events, and send instant messages, the world will be able to flourish with the access to greater amounts of information. Although the credibility of some sources has tarnished the view of citizen journalism as a whole, strides are being made to rebuild the trust of the public. While print media is struggling to maintain itself, the adaptation of online resources will be a major stepping stone towards improving the timeliness of news sources, an increase in viewership, and hopefully sustainable field for revinue which will lead to a brighter world of journalism as a whole.
Image from http://www.nataliedee.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment