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, oron television. Unlike news delivered by these othermedia, news that appears on blogs does not have totravel 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 when terrorism struck London. As passengers wereevacuated from a subway car near an explosion, oneman took several photographs of the scene with hiscellular phone, and within an hour these images wereposted online. First-person accounts of the catastrophebegan appearing on blogs soon after these photosappeared, and people all over the world learned aboutthe events in London by reading the words and seeingthe photos posted by bloggers.
The fact that these stories and images were being spreaddirectly by individuals operating without the addedfilter of a reporter helped to make the crisis feel veryimmediate to people across the globe. When it comes toblogging, news often appears in a very personal context.This has the potential to be the beginning of an excitingnew era of reporting, one that takes "New Journalism"to it's logical next step by putting the power to shapehow the news is written and read directly into the handsof the public.
Many bloggers and cultural commentators who arechampions of the weblog movement feel that thisgrowing trend of individuals who getting their newsfrom blogs is a good thing, because it makes the flow ofinformation more democratic. By decentralizing thecontrol of news, blogs allow more voices to enter thefield of debate about important current events.However, many people are adamantly opposed to theuse of blogs as news outlets, and there are plenty ofgood arguments on this side of the debate.
Unlikenewspapers or television stations, few blogs have fact-checkers, and there is little attention paid to journalisticaccountability on many blogs. This can lead to the rapidspread of misinformation, and more than one falsehoodhas taken the blogosphere by storm. The questionsabout whether blogging news as it happens is ethical ornot are very complicated, but no matter where you standon the topic of current events blogs you are almost sureto agree that this movement has the potential torevolutionize how modern people get their news.
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