Blogs and the US election
p2pnet.net News:- Citizen reporting via blogs had a “far-reaching” effect on the US general election.
So says a Mercury News report, continuing, “While skittish wire services and television networks Tuesday withheld early exit poll numbers from the public, bloggers rushed to post the data on their Web sites – and then were humbled when much of it turned out to be wrong.”
But journalism professor-cum-blogger Jay Rosen said he doesn’t see a crisis in the making:
“On the contrary, he views the incident as an opportunity to educate the public that the responsibility of filtering information has shifted from media outlets to individuals.”
In fact, citizen reporters are likely to do considerably better than many of the professionals who are all too ready to base articles on statements issued by corporate interests, even when they obviously fly in the face of reality.
And Yes – we’re thinking in particular of the way the main print and electronic media outlets handle ‘news’ releases from the entertainment industry.
“It’s so much harder to control information today, we have to stop putting our hopes in controlling it and start seeding people with the knowledge of how to use it,” Rosen, a professor at New York University, is quoted as saying in the Mercury News story.
“There’s a certain masturbatory quality to many blogs,” said PoliticsOnline.com’sPhil Noble. “A lot of them are infatuated by the new toys and the new techniques much more than they are concerned with information and facts and opinions and being able to separate the three in some way.”
Nonetheless, adds the report, “Noble said it’s only a matter of time before Internet users pick up the skills needed to evaluate information on blogs. He compares it to consumers distinguishing between reading a newspaper for information and the National Enquirer for gossip and entertainment.”
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See:-
bloggers rushed – Election results humble bloggers, Mercury News, November 4, 2004
