Answering the blogging question

In an article for American Journalism Review, Barb Palser writes how "Operating through traditional media, bloggers appear to be influencing mass communication in three ways:"

1) "The least frequent but most dramatic way is policing the media."

What Palser meant by this, is that bloggers have become the new watchdogs for media. When media does something wrong, bloggers are on the attack (or the defense). Recently, coverage of Hurricane Katrina was criticized all around, and bloggers on both sides of the spectrum, Drudge Report, Instapundit, and Truthout were all concerned with media's coverage. Blogs give people a chance to show disdain or praise for something they hear or read in the news, and it allows them to discuss further how they actually feel about certain issues.

2)"The second way blogs influence journalism is through their role as conduits between mainstream media and the online zeitgeist."

Bloggers have paved a way for journalists and analysts to find out, what is going on throughout the internet. Blogs are easily accessible and allow journalists to go from blog to blog by links to find new information. This also suggests that blogs are not all the buzz, they follow, not just create it. It is easy to say that blogs create the buzz but studies done by Pew Internet & American Life Project have shown that they are not the only leaders in buzz news.

3)"Finally, bloggers may be influencing journalism by achieving credibility as media pundits."

Now-a-days, reporters are coming to well known bloggers, to interview them on issues that the news screws up. You can find more and more coverage from bloggers in today's most well known media outlets. "Many bloggers probably consume news at least more aggressively, if not always more carefully, than a lot of other people," said Poynters Bill Mitchell. So, it seems as if it does make sense to include bloggers as credible sources, or does it?



Journalism's Backseat Drivers, By: Palser, Barb, American Journalism Review, 1067-8654, August 1, 2005, Vol. 27, Issue 4