Interesting mainstream media article that takes a realistic view of the strengths of the blogsphere. Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs is credited with both Rathergate Memo’s and Adnan Hajj Fauxtography. It should be noted that Charles Johnson is also one of the founders of Pajama Media.
After all if bloggers like web designer Charles Johnson can expose the faked Bush military memos and show how Reuters was fooled by Adnan Hajj’s photoshopped view of a burning Beirut, what do we need professional reporters for?
Source: BBC NEWS | Technology | Going local across the globe
The article doesn’t let up there but continues with this startling admission.
The rapid growth of citizen journalism seems less a sign of the emergence of a vibrant new area of online newsgathering and reporting than a symptom of the decline of existing forms of news journalism.
It points to a career-threatening loss of trust in what people see on their TV screens or read in the daily papers as they become what citizen journalist advocate Dan Gillmor calls ‘the former audience’.
My gosh that is it exactly. We are simply just sick and tired of seeing stories botched and stories slanted so as to score political points. I saw the extent that stories could be slanted back in the 80’s when I was involved in a national news story, MGM Fire, where I had direct access to sources who scoffed at the fiction being solemnly reported as fact by network anchors. The disconnect between what I saw being reported and what the actual facts were outraged me. It struck me that the main differences between say the National Enquirer and the New York Times was tasteful use of fonts.
Cavalier disregard for the feelings of others and studied disavowal of the consequences of what we say or write does not work any more.
Inconsistencies, contradictions or plain errors of fact are noticed, tracked and widely publicized.
Ding ding ding…someone gets it. My mother is forever telling me I need to read Newspapers. And you know she probably has a point but there are two problems. One, I am so used to being able to check sources when I read news reports that it is frustrating to me to read a paper when I don’t have access to the original sources used to build the story. On the net if you state a fact in a debate you will be laughed out of the “room” if you don’t provide a citation for that fact. And the second problem is I simply don’t have time with all of the material available on the net.
Some writers find this impossible to cope with, and seek refuge in the old world where their privilege and power remain intact, refusing to engage in conversation with their readers and resenting the intrusion of e-mails from an informed public.
No kidding…
They are far from perfect, but those of us working in the media should watch carefully and find our own ways of engaging with the former audience, before they decide that we are best regarded as former journalists.
It would be easy to say too late and simply move on. But it is interesting that some inside of these powerful news media machines are starting to ask the right questions. More competition is welcome.
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