In the cases that we have looked at in class I believe that bloggers play an important part in news agenda.
In my view they act as a regulatory body, which would be too expensive in press media. The likes of OFCOM and the PCC are used to protect the reader/viewer, not to analyze news stories.
Therefore these blogging societies scrutinise what would otherwise be ignored. They have become a society of little investigative reporters, analysing stories and using a sceptical eye to re- examine evidence and reporters themselves.
But I can see that bloggers can also have a negative affect on the news agenda itself, right wing supporters in America use blogging societies to plant conspiracies. They have the ability to keep their agenda anonymous, while stirring information and rumour against certain people in the press sphere.
The power of the blogging community raises some interesting points. Why hadn’t journalists researched their stories properly in the first place, then there would be no need for a second opinion. This degrades the reputation of journalists and their ability to be trusted.
The power of bloggers has increased dramatically, with many journalists finding their stories from blogs such as Guido Fawkes. This means that the power structure has flipped; with more bloggers than ever finding better information than journalists there is a bigger market for citizen journalism than ever before.
In conclusion, I think that blogging has bettered the level of news we are receiving as all news is now filtered and scrutinized by a second party.
1 comment:
Good take on how bloggers can work with the mainstream media, as an alternative system of checks and balances... I think blogs work together in a more informal way than you suggest. I don't think there are 'blogging societies' in quite the way you suggest.
Having said that, activist bloggers clearly act together in a coordinated way - for example in the Rathergate affair. I think it's useful to look with scepticism these days at reaction coming from the 'blogosphere'. In the early days, people assumed it was 'the people' talking back to the big media. There's still an element of that online. But blogs are used by activists on all sides of politics to try to achieve certain effects in the media as a whole.
But a good thoughtful post.
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