http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Technology/story?id=2800458&page=1
The world of blogging has made its way into our judicial system! What’s interesting is 1) Dick Cheney is the first sitting member to testify in a criminal case, and 2) the presence of bloggers in a trial. According to the article, bloggers are “credentialed media for the district court case.” It’s an opportunity for everyday folk (who don’t work for big media) to take part in observing and relaying details of a case that would otherwise not be afforded to them (or the public).
I find a few things interesting about this: we now have ordinary citizens that potentially will relay information without too much bias. I say this only because they are people that have not been in the industry, don’t know the ropes, are not swayed by editors, and are not influenced by politicians. In other words, they are individuals with nothing to lose – they have no “credibility”. Of course, this goes without saying, you also have the aspect of information that is not confirmed or denied, thus, the potential of reporting false information. But, that aspect alone doesn’t necessarily mean anything if you’re an individual that gets your news from People magazine or the like!
I find this new medium to be in its infancy, and can or cannot have a powerful impact on our daily lives. I guess it will depend on accuracy. If bloggers can find a way to report information in a way that can be substantiated, and have the potential of making contact with those in the story, I think we will begin to see a new way of receiving important information that would otherwise not be available to us without watching KIRO, KOMO, CNN, etc.
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2 comments:
I liked this article, it's a new step in showing that anyone can have a voice these days. I liked this quote, "The idea of citizen journalists, of people coming in from everyday walks of life to start reporting on, or talking about, or discussing what's going on in the country, is something that is fundamentally good for our society and our democracy." It is a good thing that people now have a better way to discuss ideas and the 'going ons in the world'. This is a new forum that never existed before, now you can get millions of different views, you just have to decipher between the good opinioniated posts and the ones that are untruthful.
I think the fact that the blogger was "credentialed" shows that the blogger has some credibility. I think a lot of people, besides the regular readers of the blog, will be keeping a close eye on the posts. They won't get away with posting false information. The blogger could lose their credential, I suspect, for being untruthful. I think as long as they're reporting the facts, adding their own personal opinion won't hurt them and will definitely add an interesting perspective to traditional journalism.
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