Journalism Without Journalists
Bloggers aren't really journalists, yet a blogger broke the story that may take down U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. Bloggers really don't get the exposure that reporters for large metropolitan daily newspapers get, yet they get far more feedback from readers.
These are odd but exciting times for journalism. For generations, it has been newspapers (usually large dailies like the Washington Post, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times) that have broken to the American public the investigative stories that really mattered. In part, that was true because only the big newspapers had the resources to keep teams of highly-trained investigative reporters on a potentially large story for weeks or months.
But that model of investigative journalism may be changing. In the case of the firing of numerous U.S. attorneys for partisan reasons, the story was first broken by a blogger helped by bits of information sent in by readers.
Reporting by the Talking Points Memo and contributions from its readers may soon take down the Attorney General of the United States. Apparently, bloggers have become a major force in journalism, as discussed by this Los Angeles Times story.
Gabcast! Club MediaNote #26
posted by Mike Eberts (AKA Your Humble Blogger) @ 1:08 PM
1 Comments:
Can I say WOW?!!! I read the LA Times story, I punched through to the blog site responsible for this ambush on the Attorney 'Scandal', and now here I am, leaving my two cents worth on your blog. Oh the joys of modern internet.=)
People seem somewhat surprised, especially in the media that we as a nation are able to get our news from other sources, besides the news being shown on TV and that which we can find in newspapers. My family doesn't have cable (we don't want another astronomical bill to pay), so we garner our news from the internet. When I read some of it, I notice there's the barest of details and it's more opinion relevant than fact relevant. To read a blog about the news or even listen to it on KCRW, I can read, and hear the facts more clearly without getting bogged down in somebody else's opinion. I can see how the media, especially the 'Real' news-reporters would be quick to point out that bloggers state their opinion over fact; but as I read through the LA Times story, I see how posting a blog to break a huge news story can grab other people's attention versus it coming out on the news. In the past and continuing on in to today, we know that news is censored. They'll tell us what they can and let the rest manifest itself through other events. To blog it, you get to share all of the news at one time, not just little bits. That's how I like my news. Censoring news is a thing of the past; welcome to the digital age where the tiniest thing can be told by all to all regardless of who the audience is.
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