Blogging News Stories as They Happen
Blogging news stories as they
unfold is one of the most
exciting and controversial
applications of technology
that bloggers have discovered. One
thing that makes the
blogosphere so active is the fact
that it is possible to
update a blog instantaneously, so
the news on blogs
tends to be more current than the
news in the paper, or
on television. Unlike news
delivered by these other
media, news that appears on blogs
does not have to
travel through a series of editors
and administrators
before it reaches the public eye.
This has some
advantages, and some distinct
disadvantages.
One of the most notable cases
of news hitting a blog
before appearing in other media
took place in July 2005
when terrorism struck London. As
passengers were
evacuated from a subway car near
an explosion, one
man took several photographs of
the scene with his
cellular phone, and within an hour
these images were
posted online. First-person
accounts of the catastrophe
began appearing on blogs soon
after these photos
appeared, and people all over the
world learned about
the events in London by reading
the words and seeing
the photos posted by bloggers.
The fact that these stories and
images were being spread
directly by individuals operating
without the added
filter of a reporter helped to
make the crisis feel very
immediate to people across the
globe. When it comes to
blogging, news often appears in a
very personal context.
This has the potential to be the
beginning of an exciting
new era of reporting, one that
takes "New Journalism"
to it's logical next step by
putting the power to shape
how the news is written and read
directly into the hands
of the public.
Many bloggers and cultural
commentators who are
champions of the weblog movement
feel that this
growing trend of individuals who
getting their news
from blogs is a good thing,
because it makes the flow of
information more democratic. By
decentralizing the
control of news, blogs allow more
voices to enter the
field of debate about important
current events.
However, many people are adamantly
opposed to the
use of blogs as news outlets, and
there are plenty of
good arguments on this side of the
debate. Unlike
newspapers or television stations,
few blogs have fact-
checkers, and there is little
attention paid to journalistic
accountability on many blogs. This
can lead to the rapid
spread of misinformation, and more
than one falsehood
has taken the blogosphere by
storm. The questions
about whether blogging news as it
happens is ethical or
not are very complicated, but no
matter where you stand
on the topic of current events
blogs you are almost sure
to agree that this movement has
the potential to
revolutionize how modern people
get their news.
