Intro to Digital Age

Blogging and the New Era of Journalism

June 13, 2006 at 1:50 pm | In | 1 Comment

I thought I knew what blogs were.  That is, until I began to read the blogs assigned this week.  I used to think blogs were simply someone’s rambling thoughts about a day in his or her life.  Now I see that blogs are powerful communication vehicles that have created change in our own country and around the world.  As my last blog entry noted, we are experiencing a new era of journalism thanks in large part to bloggers.  The citizen journalism that has been created out of this trend has highlighted the disenfranchisement of big media from the community and given a voice to the audience.  The blogs we read this week demonstrated the blurring of lines between blogging and journalism.

An interesting post on Publishing 2.0 regarding a potential social networking backlash sparked conversation based on a New York Times article.  I had heard that companies were looking for information on potential hiring candidates on websites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com, but this article confirmed it.  The post on Publishing 2.0 pointed out the potential backlash that could happen as a result.  The point was that young people will not use these social networking sites in the future because of the negative association it will have.  I disagree with this.  I think that people and the technology they use for these sites will change over time.   I think the users of these sites will become more aware of what they put up for public display.  I also think the sites will give users the opportunity to keep some things private while leaving other things available for public viewing.  I don’t see the popularity of online social networking decreasing anytime soon.  I would argue that users will find a way to keep certain things from public view, particularly the view of hiring managers.

Another site that caught my attention from this week’s reading was Rocketboom.com.  I had no idea such a site existed.  This videoblog is both entertaining and informative.  One video that interested me on this site was an interview with Robert Scoble about his announcement that he is leaving Microsoft.  The setting was informal and as the viewer, I felt I was in the room with them.  I felt involved in the conversation taking place between the interviewer, Robert Scoble, and a few other people who were in the room.  It was a clear departure from traditional journalism, but I would still call it journalism.  It is an example of the new era of journalism.