Mainstream Media Credit not attractive anymore

ARTICLE FEEDBACK
FOR
Vincent Maher
re Blogger's Investigation Ousts Swedish Minister

You have underscored “has not been credited” by mainstream media. As for me, I would not depend too much on them. Before, they were the kings. In the context of today, they are not.

The point is that production of information is not only for the powerful nowadays. It is only that they have the machinery, and the usual audience that are mostly advertisers. But today, with technology and open access to the Internet, citizens have learned that they do not have to kowtow anymore to traditional media which lords it over in mainstream media. Blogging is just as powerful. The information highways now have almost equalized access to ideas and their dissemination.

On constructive nudging, this is where we can play our part as bloggers. There are many issues around that are not touched by traditional journalists. In the Philippines, for example, no one is paying attention to the evil effects of block voting done by a religious sect that is courted even by presidential candidates. After elections, the sect collects in so many ways, putting its influence in many quarters in as sensitive as law enforcement and justice. I’ve done my part here. I’ve sent my challenge to investigative journalists. It remains to be seen if someone has the guts to follow up and act on it.

Half-baked news foisted on us again

Original link for the story

Home > Brian Ross Special Index > The Blotter

Once again, there is news with so many quotation marks for blind items and many loopholes. Who are "informed sources close to the mediations" that Hoda Osman used as sources?

Osman wrote >>>>>The U.S. secretly negotiated with the group through leaders of "the Palestinian popular resistance committees." Who are these leaders and these committees? What were this group's "real demands?"

Most of all, what are the identities of those two Fox News journalists in Gaza, supposedly kidnapped on August 14 that are the subjects of this news? With all these ambiguities in this account, this so-called “news” is half-baked!

So, when will traditional reporting of this kind change?

News . . . . Here it comes

Why do Bloggers Blog?

FOR Dr. William R. Adan

You wrote: I don't quite understand why some people are in [blogging].

"Blog" is derived from the words web and log. Blogs are the media these days. Blogs may be projected in Google through metadata and they can be scanned when one conducts a search. From there, they can be picked up for use.

Blogs afford the writer some voice and some power. Access to traditional media is limited as we can see.

You wrote: So you don't have to be sad about how events in writing turn out.

Most bloggers blog to be able to respond to events. Without a ready venue for writing, blogs offer a perfect answer to this need.

I have my own blogs, but I stay connected with Poynter Institute and OhMyNews International, and some writers' sites besides. The first is a journalism institute and the other one works along citizen journalism. So I ride astride two horses with differing thoughts. I am curious with citizen journalism and am sympathetic to their cause, but this early I know I lack the nerve to be reading the stories. It needs patience since most citizen journalism outputs do not come in the package and approaches we were taught in school.

I have the hunch that these people are at the forefront today. It also seems they get the more respect. You know how traditional media is detested now because of its failings. And with it, traditional journalists are not looked upon with the same regard they had before.

You wrote: Writing is a grand exercise. Crafting words, lines and phrases excites and disciplines the mind and by itself is rewarding.

I say, you've answered your own question.

Better the Men than Women Bloggers

Article Feedback

Better the Men
For Article: New Pew Blogger Study
Posted by Jane Abao 7/24/2006 9:54:13 PM

I was wondering why among the topics categorized there was nothing for communications or media. Perhaps if there were a category for “others...I was wondering why among the topics categorized there was nothing for communications or media. Perhaps if there were a category for “others,” this topic would belong there.

Don’t people talk much against the stupid boob tube? The news that are not news because they are manufactured – whether in print or in cyberspace? Or do people just talk but never write about them? Blogging is just like talking. I wonder where the complaints about wayward media go.

I would appreciate the men better. At least they write deeply about this topic – not just in blogs but also in scholarly publications.