Sunday, March 4, 2007

Blogpost #4

It seems that a I hear a lot these days about the demise of newspapers and the growing preference for information made available through blogs.


Don't get me wrong, I think blogging is a valuable tool for getting people involved in the world around them. But I worry about the ease with which some people are saying that newspapers no longer have a place in modern American life, and about the difficulty that newspapers companies are having keeping their businesses afloat.

I keep thinking about one aspect of newspapers in particular that we as a society
would sorely miss if they disappeared, and that is investigative journalism. The role of the press as the fourth estate as described by Mick Underwood at http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/index.html
could be in serious jeopardy:

"However, from the perspective of those researchers who see the media as situated
within the model of a pluralist liberal democracy, the mass media are often seen
as fulfilling the vitally important rĂ´le of fourth estate, the guardians of
democracy, defenders of the public interest."

The recent series of articles in The Washington Post that revealed the conditions at Walter Reed has also (hopefully) prompted the government to admit some of its errors and to clean up its act regarding the treatment of vets. The reporter apparently worked on the story for 4 or 5 months. How likely is it that bloggers will take that kind of time to delve into a story, or that blogs will maintain the watchdog function that our democracy relies on?


Just something to think about.

9 comments:

Marita said...

I look forward to the delivery of my daily newspaper. This has been a trdition in my family for many years. It provides me with news from around the world, I am en\tertained with my favorite comics, I am challenged with crossword puzzles, and amazed with human interest stories. It troubles me when I hear that circulation is down for the well known daily newspapers because they are necessary part of our society. Blogging is a way to express yourself and find out what is happening, although I could not live without my newspaper! Thanks Louise.

mkhun said...

The ironic thing is that most informational blogs I can think of depend on other sources for their content, newspapers being one of them.

I am trying to think of a blog that has the fact-checking and editorial oversight that newspapers are supoose to have. Can anyone think of one?

It's easy to forget that blogs originally were intended to be a kind of diary to be posted on the internet. But it progessed into a something that is causing a decline in newspapers.

Even though I am a heavy computer user, I still enjoy the Sunday paper because it shows me things I didn't know about.

wantonlife said...

I think newspapers will continue to be vital for some time....just that the print format will continue to give way to online versions. I read the NYT almost every day, but I always do it online through Bloglines.

Dana said...

My previous career was in newspapers, and I would always hear people say that the newspaper industry was dying. Even when I was an undergrad, there was talk (and fear) of electronic paper. It never worried me too much. Now I find it kind of funny that my second career choice is also in a field that people say is dying. "Someday there won't be any printed books because everything will be online," people say. There won't be anymore libraries. Bah!
I agree with you on the value of investigative reporting. Newspapers have the resources to do it so much better than TV news, in my opinion. I do not think that either investigative reporting or newspapers will die soon. In fact, one positive use of blogs is that they get people talking and can draw attention to areas that mainstream media might ignore. I'm thinking of the guy who took pictures of the dirty Kohls. Hot topics on blogs will no doubt be picked up by newspapers. Some of them will lead the reporters to investigate further. I also believe that more bloggers will start doing their own investigative reporting. Some will be credible; some won't, just like print sources.

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