One needs not look too far for evidence of how life is becoming increasingly more digitized by the day. Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have users in the millions who constantly update and check the profiles of their peers. Libraries, newspapers, and academic journals are digitizing books and articles to post on the Internet in greater numbers (refer to an earlier March 1 blog entry of mine that discusses this issue). Even right now, I am using this blog to communicate with anyone who happens to navigate to this page.
Amid this growing digitization of American culture, a fundamental conflict has arisen between Old Media and New Media. Old Media can be defined as the traditional forms of news dissemination—paper newspapers, magazines, journals, etc.—while New Media encompasses the new user-oriented, digital forms of news diffusion like blogs, Wikipedia, and podcasting. I recommend watching this video called EPIC 2015, which paints a very satiric and Orwellian picture of the future of news media. I will not speak too much about this video in this post because I plan to use it as a discussion point in my presentation in class on Thursday.
The rise of citizen journalism—defined by Wikipedia as “the act of citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information”—has made many traditional forms of media worry about the future of their existence. You can view the statistics for the downward trend of Sunday and daily newspaper readership over the years at this website. This kind of participatory journalism has evolved from the time of William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal and accusations of yellow journalism during the Spanish-American War in 1898 to the personalized, always-evolving medium we have today.
It is now possible for anyone with access to a computer and the Internet to create blogs or write news reports. Case in point, a South Korean online newspaper called OhmyNews a website where online users can submit news articles to be published and their motto is “Every Citizen is a Reporter.” With each citizen having the ability to be a reporter, everything is under closer scrutiny. During the CBS “Rathergate” scandal, for example, Internet forums and blogs challenged the authenticity of the Killian documents used to discredit President Bush’s military record and it was eventually determined that the documents were forged. Likewise, a blog named Little Green Footballs exposed doctored Reuters photos from the Lebanon-Israel conflict of Summer 2006 (click here to view the blog entry).
Blogs give every person the opportunity to take an active role in the public sphere and also increase the likelihood of exposing scandals and inconsistencies on all sides of the spectrum. While traditional news organizations worry that the rise of citizen journalism will have an overall negative effect on the nature of news, could it be that this is just what the news world needs? Or does citizen journalism lack the objectivity that many traditional news organizations claim to have? I look forward to discussing these questions and more on Thursday.
20 comments:
First and foremost I most certainly believe that citizen reporting is incredibly biased and not objective. You can take for instance, my roommate's blog where he determined who was a "good" resident on our floor and who was "bad." When asked to take certain people off, he refused to do anything about it. His justification was that it was his opinion and that he had a right to defame people on his personal blog. With people's reasoning such as this, biased reports are sure to follow in news reports. It's a personal blog, so people's opinions are sure to show through the reports- most people aren't trained in objectivity as most reporters are supposed to be.
Also, as I have mentioned in a previous blog entry, I believe the more and more personal new reporting becomes the norm (despite how subjective it can and will be), the more the traditional news reporting will disintigrate. However, I feel television reporting will last longer than print, just based on the visuality of it. However, once people are able to post their own video (though editing videos improperly will result as well) on events, I feel television reporting will become obsolete as well.
I look forward to this presentation!
While I was watching that Epic 2015 video I really felt like I was in a museum. It did a great job of showing the evolution and merging of online companies and news. Also, I had never heard of a Wifipod so that was interesting to hear about.
In response to one of your questions, I definitely think that citizens reporting news will be biased. Humans have opinions, so they are obviously going to show through their writing and reporting. However, professional reporters and news organizations are biased as well, with most media tending to be liberal, and Fox news having a more conservative standing.
I love citizen news reporting. When I want to explore a new city, I hate going on tours via buses, or with friends down the most popular boulevards and whatnot, to the touristy attractions, etc. When I want to get to know a city, I do it myself, on foot, with no endpoint goal once I start wandering.. (other than to end near some form of a train station). I love the rogue-ness of it, and I feel the same way about citizen news reporting. In order to find out the real news- the stuff that is actually interesting and might actually benefit, not make more stupid, the people who read it, is an incredibly fabulous phenomenon, in my opinion. Just the other night when the Karl Rove protest occured, within hours after the incident, friends of mine had the Washington Post and NBC 4 there with cameras, and within a half hour of that, our school was on the 11 o'clock news. What a story, and what a way to report it. Citizen news all the way!
Watching that video only helps to prove my suspision that Google is going to take over the world! It is very ineresting how they predict journalism turning completely over to the internet. It makes sense, if you think about NBC's move about four or five months ago to go to free podcasting and free downloads of NBC Nightly News. As soon as they hit the ground running, they were followed closley by the CBS evening news as well as ABC's World News Tonight.
Now, when i miss the news or want to hear about something, i have become a user that downloads the newcast, instead of searching through the website.
I'm looking forward to the presentation.
citizen reporting is definitely useful, but absolutely dangerous. with the increased flow of information, you also encounter an increased flow of misinformation. regulatory bodies need to be more careful and create safeguards to make sure that there is some filter on the flow of "official" news.
"regulatory bodies need to be more careful and create safeguards to make sure that there is some filter on the flow of 'official" news.'"
Sounds a little sketchy to me. Might not be a good idea idea to mix the phrases 'regulatory bodies' and 'official news'. I think we need to depend on proven journalistic standards to identify the less responsible journalists. I'm not ready to trust any random blogger for my news. Good bloggers generally provide commentary on existing coverage.
I have to agree with will. I just feel that while Blogs can provide people with news and information, that fact is that they are simply someone's diary published online. They are not bound to the rules of journalistic integrity. I feel that while blogs can be good for other perspectives on certain issues, it is the established news agencies like CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN that are best when it comes facts.
I think citizen's news is very beneficial in that it can provide a point of view that may not be seen on the evening news. However, with that said, it is impossible for it not to biased, since it is most likely someone's opinion on something theyve experienced. It definitely should be given credit as a respectable form of news media.
I am familiar with the 2015 video, only I knew it as "Googlezon". It paints a very eerie picture of the future, a very very possible future. with the continuing trends towards privitization and more power going in to the hands of the corporations, a future were mega media congolmorates hold ultimate power over all communication and knowledge isnt that too far off.
I think that citizen reporting could be both very beneficial and very "dangerous." Just look at Wikipedia, some of the stuff is reliable while some of the stuff is complete garbage. I fear that it will be too difficult for people to tell what is truth and what is not.
Citizenship reporting does allow for a huge flow of information. The positive side is that scandals and any other information the public deserves to know can be easily attained. The downside is that one cannot always detremine what information is reliable, because as what was stated in your blog anyone can become a journalist.
I think regardless of bias in citizen reporting its importance can not be overstated. I wrote a blog entry recently about the affects citizen reporting has had in Egypt, where bloggers are reporting cases of brutality, torture, and other civil rights violations to gain international attention. Still, in countries where the press is relatively free of constraints, I think that citizen reporting should act only as a supplement and a check to more corporate news.
I would also disagree with Kate that most news is liberal, but that is off topic.
I really like this idea of citizen reporting but I fear that personal opinions will bais the truthfulness of the information that is being reported. If there were to be opinions by citiznes offered after both of sides of the story have been discussed then I support this kind of work. I agree with Ryans comment on Wikipedia. I mean anyone can post information all of over the internet, and even on a legitimate website but that doesnt always mean that the information provided is accurate and true without any bias.
I think that citizen reporting is useful and interesting. It allows anybody to give their perspective about any aspect of the world that they live in and gives others the ability to formulate their own opinion based on what they find in blogs, etc. where these reports can be posted. It becomes harmful when you take an unprofessional published report as the absolute truth. People must see the difference between reading what other people have to say about something and reading a news article published by a reliable, responsible newspaper. Both are valuable but very different.
In the video in your blog entry, the difference between blogs and news reports is forgotten and a more open and extremely informal and unprofessional way of journalism takes the place of more traditional ways. We need to make sure that come 2015, this is not the reality.
Although mainstream media is biased according to its reporters, blogs, which have no form of peer review and are whatever their authors feel like saying that particular day, are much more so. Blogs won't replace media; at best they will supplement and monitor it. Also, the thought of the writing of the citizen reporters turns my stomach... journalists have had some kind of training and know how to make a story readable.
Although mainstream media is biased according to its reporters, blogs, which have no form of peer review and are whatever their authors feel like saying that particular day, are much more so. Blogs won't replace media; at best they will supplement and monitor it. Also, the thought of the writing of the citizen reporters turns my stomach... journalists have had some kind of training and know how to make a story readable.
There was actually a few "American Forum[s]" on this topic last semester. I went to one with the head of NBC online i think and two community blogger sites. Basically- The two sources- mainstream journalis m and bloggers coexist in a symbiotic relationship. The blooger fills in the more local and individually prevelant holes. But mainly- a blogger or citizen journalist will create a buzz or make a story and this will allow people who are curious to check with reputable sources such as mainstream media. The personal outlet allows for more specified/locally relevant news/specualation/ While mainstream allows for over arching and fact checked info.
I think internet news sources are great. However, as noted there can be a problem with legitimacy. Still, breaking the monopoly of traditional news outlets on information is worth the occasional misstep. The 24 hour news cycle dictates expedient fact checks and yes, due to this certain misinformation will inevitably surface. However, as seen with the Rathergate scandal, accountability is still there. His career was ended by his carelessness. I generally accept what I read online but if it is something extravagant I simply wait for the mainstream outlets to check its authenicity and then run it themselves.
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