The Importance of Blogs

On CNN.com this morning, I found an article related to exactly what we've been asked to do for our 5% TBA - create blogs. I found that this form of publication (that I had never heard of until last week) is actually an issue of controversy and increasing popularity. In the article entitled How do bloggers impact political news? the primary concern is that readers may be influenced by blogging practices. The reason this article was in the news is because Ana Marie Cox of Wonkette! and other writers posted exit polls throughout Election Day, and this is “a practice frowned upon in the mainstream media because the data could sway the outcome.” However, as Cox states, the impact is only as strong as the readers' beliefs, and it should not be a big issue.

The advantages of blogs are discussed in this article: (1) they make it more difficult for the larger news organizations to “sit on a story,” (2) they provide stories for further exposure on these mainstream news organizations, (3) they expose flaws in news reports and thus promote their corrections. However, along with the advantages of blogs come the disadvantages. Because blogs are written by individuals like us, the credibility is not established like that of CNN or other popular news publications. At the end of the article, a University of Florida journalism professor expresses her concern that the ethics of professional journalism are at stake; she is afraid bloggers will not check the truth of their information.

Although it is considered a disadvantage in this article, I believe that blogs are actually a new source of credible information. The new bloggers who want their name out there will work hard to submit information and back it up with facts. As we all have probably noticed in these last few months, mainstream news organizations are not completely credible (Dan Rather and CBS News), and they are all certainly biased in reporting political news (the position of the camera in pictures of debates, etc.). With the addition of blogs, people will be able to read different takes on the same story and be able to form their own opinions. Therefore, I do not believe that the journalism professor has any reason to be concerned. Americans who want more insight into news and politics are smart enough to sift through the bad journalists, and therefore, those bloggers will disappear.

If you want to see some blogs from the election, click here: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/blog/11/02/election.blog/