Don't abandon questions

FOR Deepak Adhikari (deeplog)
A Nepali Journalist Abroad - OhmyNews International
An interview with Dharma Adhikari on blogs, citizen journalism and mainstream media

"So write with empathy, not cynicism."

I hope you don't mean readily believing what one sees and hears. When one is a critical thinker, she takes things slower than most others, asking herself why, why, why.

koteet, 2006/07/31 14:31

Blogs in Research Too

Article Feedback
For Article: Bloggers as Sources: What's Your Take?
Posted by Jane Abao 8/8/2006 9:26:08 PM

I don’t come mainly from a news organization but I do write news. In writing for news, I have not thought of using blogs as... I don’t come mainly from a news organization but I do write news. In writing for news, I have not thought of using blogs as my source. However, I had tried using it for research.

There was a time I had to look into [Product A] and its so-called prime, and its relationship to [Product B], another competitor. This calls for user input, I thought. I did not have the luxury to do surveys as my primary obligation was to write - from literature.

I was blessed to find blogs of one who seemingly acted as press relations man but not quite. He was writing about the sponsored surveys of [Product A] and giving out statistics, and developments regarding the product. I had included his write-ups in my review since they were not opinion pieces. Moreover, his blogs had allowed a comments portion where users were able to argue their cases.

In his blogs, I was able to collect a good portion of comments from direct users of both products from the United States and United Kingdom - debating well on the issues. From there, my research was enlightened about one category and that was location of users. At the same time that some of these commenters accused the blogger of public relations, they wrote very useful information.

In a set-up where the piece is followed by comments from the public, I guess blogs can be useful even in news. What is important, I think, is not in their identity because bloggers use only user names, but what information they were sharing. In the case I am discussing, the main writer whose writings were being commented on, had his full name in the very first piece he wrote for the company. I had to trace it from there and that’s where I discovered he was being introduced as an intern from the University of Virginia. This information was very important to me, as I was able to identify him in his subsequent blogs.

To me, my research was enhanced by my inclusion of those information from the blogs.