WHO SAYS WE'RE DEAD?

Source: Practicum Pioneers

Now that we have established the fact that bloggers and new media have begun to take over the media world, the question remains if journalists, traditional media and the very practice of journalism will face extinction with the rise of the blogosphere. Brian McNair certainly didn’t think so. McNair states that journalists, journalism and traditional media will not experience any form of death, because they are needed on so many social, political and cultural levels worldwide. (McNair, 2009)

As a matter of fact, I feel that traditional media has evolved and improved under the pressures of the new media.

Bloggers may be able to boast about their high readerships on the Internet but their reporting credibility and accuracy is still eclipsed to that of a traditional journalist.  According to findings by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, barely 12 % of Internet users find blogs a trustworthy news source. (Walden, 2007)

Now, the main advantage bloggers have over journalists and traditional media is the ability to report on an event and have it reach millions of readers around the world just minutes after the actual has happened. Whereas for a traditional practice of journalism, the quickest possible time for a report to be published is the day after the event took place. (Outing, 2004)

Source: Waycy Blog

In order to compete with bloggers and their ability to constantly update on news, journalists have to realize that the use of blogs is not reserved solely for the bloggers. News organizations such as MSNBC, The Providence Journal, The Dallas Morning News, and The Christian Science Monitor are now brimming with blogs run by their editors information gatekeepers by speeding up their news publishing cycle, while still maintaining the objectivity and accuracy of traditional journalism. (Lasica, 2003) Traditional media outlets have also begun to hire bloggers to bring a more personal style of writing to and reporters. Traditional media have embraced blogs as a way of improving their roles of the typical news reports. For example, the NY Times hired Brian Stelter, a young blogger on TVNewser.com the moment he graduated from college. (Glaser, 2008)

Instantaneously, bloggers are beginning to adopt journalistic standards and ethics in order to compete with their online counterparts. Independent blogs are now doing more editing, more source checking, breaking more news and hiring more journalists as staff in their publications. For instance, Gawker, a Manhattan based blog, is practicing more traditional based journalism by having a staff of four editors and six reporters instead of the usual ‘one reporter, one blog’ concept. Other than that, GigaOm, a blog based in Silicon Valley now edits 80% of its reports before being publishing them in order to obtain a higher level of accuracy and credibility than a usual blog. (Glaser, 2008)

As for now, it appears that bloggers aren’t going anywhere. And neither is traditional media and journalists. Readers will always turn to traditional media as trusted sources of information, that will never change.

References

1. Glaser, M 2008, ‘Distinction Between Bloggers, Journalists Blurring More Than Ever,’ online, retrieved 3 October 2009, from http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/02/distinction-between-bloggers-journalists-blurring-more-than-ever059.html
2. Lasica, J. D. 2003, ‘Blogs and Journalism Need Each Other,’ Nieman Reports, Vol. 57, No. 3, pp. 70-74, retrieved 5 October 2009, from http://socialmediaclub.pbworks.com/f/blog%20and%20journalism.pdf
3. McNair, B 2009, ‘Journalism in the 21st century: evolution, not extinction,’ Journalism, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 347-349, retrieved 7 October 2009, from http://jou.sagepub.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/cgi/reprint/10/3/347.pdf
4. Outing, S 2004, ‘What Bloggers Can Learn From Journalists,’ online, retrieved 6 October 2009, from http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=75665
5. Walden, R 2007, ‘The Blogger as Journalist: Codes of Ethics in the World of Blogging,’ online, retrieved 7 October 2009, from http://web-journalism.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_blogger_as_journalist