Is “blogging” the future of journalism? | Digital Letterpress: Part 5
One of our basic human desires is to be heard. Whether we want that to be over a microphone in front of a crowd of people or simply just a single friend, we want someone to hear and listen to our voice. We want to share thoughts, opinions, feelings that will reach and affect other people. Please understand that my reference to “voice” has very little to do with the actual sound coming from our vocal cords and more to do with the expressions coming from our hearts and minds. In times past, the ability to reach an audience hinged upon one’s ability to find a platform. A circle of friends served as an audience, but reaching people beyond that was difficult. Publication, radio air time, and television screen time would give you the chance to reach people, but the odds of getting seen or heard through those platforms was slim.
When the Internet and Web arrived, the walls separating you from an audience began to dissipate, and among the rubble could be found the platform of the blog. The blog’s popularity swiftly grew as the total in existence numbered “about 50 in 1999” and skyrocketed to “over 2 million” in 2003 according to Barbara Kaye in “It’s a Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog World.” The platform gave every day people a way to release their voices to an audience without relying on closed-off avenues. All of a sudden, people could share their opinions on everything from movie reviews to politics, creating a free-form journalism.
Is that a problem? Will this format injure the integrity and accuracy of journalism? Can we really call this journalism at all?
Some groups raise valid concerns about the ability of blogging to act as “citizen journalism.” Much of blogging is opinion-based, after all, and some of it may be factually inaccurate. Still, for every fault in the platform, a positive shows itself. Many blogs use formal journalism to either back up their topics or to spur the conversation initially. Some may argue that the bias in blogs discredits them, but I would argue that, even with the bias, value still lies in them.
Why?
In her article, Kaye cites “community” as just one of reasons for blog popularity. Not only does this platform give an individual a voice, but it gives listeners a sense of belonging to a collective. Kaye describes the formations of communities “through interactions with like-minded people and feeling like part of the ‘blogosphere.’” Blogs are important because they connect us together. Yes, they inform and entertain, but most of all, they open dialogues between people in ways that could not have existed fifty years ago.
“Social interaction is a prerequisite for creating and maintaining any relationship. As a communication channel, blogs allow their authors to disseminate information to their social networks easily. When a blogger’s family and friends respond to blog posts, a conversation is initiated; this serves to maintain the vitality of the relationship.” – Michael A. Stefanone and Chyng-Yang Jang in Writing for Friends and Family: The Interpersonal Nature of Blogs
The role of a communicator should be to connect and create conversations with other people, so as a communicator, I love the opportunities that blogs provide. When I wrote about the downfall of the print news industry in a past blog post, I cited one of its problems as being a medium that does not encourage true connections with its audience. Readers must labor to converse with writers, editors, etc. Blogs are the complete opposite end of that spectrum. The post one reads is not the culmination of the experience but just the beginning. The experience exists within the dialogue between writer and reader.
The successful connection between blogger and follower builds a level of trust that honestly cannot be mirrored by a traditional journalist. Whether that be good or bad, I believe it to be true. People read reviews of movies or games before consuming them because they value the opinion of the writer. They value the experience of the blogger and feel his or her honesty regarding the product. I know that when I get ready to purchase an item from Amazon, I research so many reviews and blogs that I run myself crazy. I have a few reviewers whose voices I trust and go to them when I need an opinion.
When it comes to politics, some readers feel national news is just as biased as blogs are accused of being. In a Washington Post article from 2012 entitled “How biased are the media, really?”, Paul Farhi writes, “Few people make a distinction between news reporting—which attempts to play it straight—and opinion-mongering, which is designed to provoke and persuade.” Without that distinction, viewers see no difference between news report and blog. Farhi continues by explaining “(63 percent) in Pew’s news-bias survey cited ‘cable news,’ and specifically Fox News and CNN” when asked about their thoughts of the phrase “news organization.”
If that be the case, what truly separates an opinionated blogger posting from his or her home and an opinionated analyst recording from a broadcast set?
I don’t believe blogging should permanently replace journalism, but I don’t discredit it either. I believe it has purpose, strengths, and is valuable to the development of our society. There is something inherently democratic about the idea behind blogging. It stands as a symbol of freedom of speech, that the power of the spoken word lives in the mouths (and digital pages) of every day people. We live in an age that isn’t dictated by the powerful outlets of a few, but that is speckled with the voices of many. I hope we never lose sight of how beautiful that is.
I will leave you with a quote from Andrew Sullivan, a successful professional blogger and the founder of Dish Publishing LLC. It exemplifies the rawness and wonder of blogging. His words describe blogging’s beauty despite its faults.
“Blogging is to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.”