Are Bloggers Just a Bunch of Know Nothings Sitting Around in Their Pajamas?
Last night in another GSPM class, Political Communication Strategies, we had three guest speakers who came to speak in front of our class. They were reporters from the Washington Post, the Hill and CNN. Mostly they spoke about their jobs, their relationships with press secretaries, and the protocol they follow each day. We discussed what news is and how they find their scoops.
As the discussion evolved the issue of blogs came up and one student posed the question of whether the reporters had ever used a blog to write a story and whether or not they thought blogging was a force for the traditional news media to reckon with.
Answering the question, the representative from the Washington Post admitted that he had actually once formulated a story with the help of a blogger, who he did give credit to in his story, but he did not really look to bloggers to make news. Instead he felt bloggers simply opine about the news that the traditional news media reports. In essence he said he does not believe that bloggers will out scoop traditional news venues.
When the representative from CNN answered the same question he basically said that he thought that bloggers do not hold such an important place as some people are speculating they do, but he also doesn't think that bloggers are just a bunch of guys sitting in front of their computers at home in their pajamas.
Even if bloggers are a bunch of guys sitting in their pajamas I believe that blogging is beginning to find its own place in the world. Some people do believe what they read in the blogs is the news and we all need to come to terms with that.
The three reporters even said while they do not agree with Drudge's views on everything he writes he does have a good pulse on everything that is in the news because he reads from the same wires and reports from them. Whether Drudge gets the story 100% right or not, we all need to accept the fact that blogging is a new form of communication and should not just be pushed to wayside because it is not a traditional form of reporting.
As the discussion evolved the issue of blogs came up and one student posed the question of whether the reporters had ever used a blog to write a story and whether or not they thought blogging was a force for the traditional news media to reckon with.
Answering the question, the representative from the Washington Post admitted that he had actually once formulated a story with the help of a blogger, who he did give credit to in his story, but he did not really look to bloggers to make news. Instead he felt bloggers simply opine about the news that the traditional news media reports. In essence he said he does not believe that bloggers will out scoop traditional news venues.
When the representative from CNN answered the same question he basically said that he thought that bloggers do not hold such an important place as some people are speculating they do, but he also doesn't think that bloggers are just a bunch of guys sitting in front of their computers at home in their pajamas.
Even if bloggers are a bunch of guys sitting in their pajamas I believe that blogging is beginning to find its own place in the world. Some people do believe what they read in the blogs is the news and we all need to come to terms with that.
The three reporters even said while they do not agree with Drudge's views on everything he writes he does have a good pulse on everything that is in the news because he reads from the same wires and reports from them. Whether Drudge gets the story 100% right or not, we all need to accept the fact that blogging is a new form of communication and should not just be pushed to wayside because it is not a traditional form of reporting.
3 Comments:
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I just received you email telling me you have configured your blog. This is another comment to test automatic reporting.
DCAE, please go ahead and delete it.
[reposted now that the comment will go to Emi]
It was definitely interesting to hear what they had to say on this topic. I think there is certainly a fair bit of resentment from the fourth estate regarding blogs, with many journalists (though certainly not all) simply dismissing their content as "opinion."
While this is certainly the case the majority of the time, there is a function that blogs provide that all three of the speakers touched on last night as a failing of their trade: providing long term perspective.
Sure, most blogs typically stick to the primary topic of the day, but oftentimes I feel they can get out of the deadline-to-deadline mentality that was mentioned last night that inhibits the providing of a long-term perspective in traditional journalism. Between that and the ability to focus laser-like on a given topic (such as Josh Marshall on congressmen's stances on Social Security, which is what Allen was referring to last night), there are certainly some valuable ways that blogs can suplement traditional journalism (which, I might add, blogs will certainly never replace).
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