By Dan Beal

 

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.

 

 

 

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