Many “real” journalists in the News media argue that bloggers aren’t really journalists since they have no ethical code dealing with the release of sources and truthfulness of the reporting like business bound journalists have. They argue that blogs are wide open to false sources since there is little regulation by other journalists, “real” or otherwise. Bloggers who report current events regularly in their journals tend to be highly opinionated individuals who do not leave their opinions at the door before writing their articles. Thus, these critics argue that bloggers aren’t real journalists and shouldn’t be treated like them.
This question makes us ask what really are journalists? To some extent journalists are simply reporters of information; however, today they have become professionals with ethical codes and guidelines. This second version of journalist is the one that bloggers are excluded from. Yet there is an assumption made on the part of these journalists and those who support their position, that only through a professional framework can information be safely conveyed. Yet the events of modern times would show this assumption to be false.
With the rise of Generation-X into adulthood, many daily newspapers have been struggling to survive. This new generation, growing up in a world of twenty-four hour news channels and, later, Google News, failed to pick up the habits of reading the paper daily that was essential to maintain newspaper readership. While Gen-X’s parents were still reading their papers, Gen-X was moving toward a much less habitual way of getting their news. Responding, the paper business has moved toward smaller, free newspapers distributed sometimes only weekly and funded by advertising costs alone. These newspapers tend to be more radical in their political orientation since they no longer have to appeal to a consistent readership and generally are supported by a much smaller audience.
At the same time, the networks are quickly being outstripped in their news services which air for only four or five hours a day. Twenty-Four hour news channel’s greater accessibility and flashier characters draw more watchers and slowly sap away audiences from the national stations. Fox News’s consistent slant on programs such as The O’Riley Factor and CNN’s Robert Novak’s dangerous release of CIA operative’s identity show the lack of journalistic ethics in these programs.
Even so, the major networks themselves have also shown their weaknesses. “CBS admits that it was duped by airing forged documents that claimed that, in 1972 a young George W. Bush did not fulfill his military obligations and was helped by his powerful family and political connections,”
Jeffrey Dvorkin writes. What is extremely important is that what broke this story were the blogs and bloggers who saw the accusation and decided to go on their own and check it out. Then, using their website as a new pulpit, the Bloggers quickly spread the news like colonial minutemen.
As mainstream media moves more and more to unregulated sources like Rush Limbaugh and the Daily Show, journalists can claim less and less of a professional ethical guideline. While this might be a tragic loss, there is still little that mainstream media can do to correct the problem in the wake of strict deregulation of media businesses. Instead, readers should turn to blogs and formulaic news feeders such as Google News or Blogdex to see what issues are “hot.”
For those that argue that bloggers have no regulation, not only have current events shown that the alternatives aren’t any more regulated but, also, the professional media outlets carry with them the perception of definitive knowledge that does not activate in readers, the fact checking impulses that blogs do because of their limited scope. The very fact that I can quickly
link you up to a myriad of other news services and connect you back to the web itself means that blogs themselves offer much greater fact checking capacity than regular news services tod
ay.