Blogging has revolutionised the relationships audiences have with the media, particularly in the journalistic arena. Traditionally the media has been an entity in which the large majority of audience is passive. Information is disseminated and the audience simply consumes with little avenue for comment or analysis.
Greg Ruggerio in Rushoff’s Media Virus says, “Media is a corporate possession…You cannot participate in the media. Bringing that into the foreground is the first step. The second step is to define the difference between public and audience. An audience is passive, a public is participatory. We need a media that is public in its orientation.� (in Blood, 2002).Blood argues that by writing a few lines everyday, webloggers began to redefine the media as a participatory endeavour (Blood, 2002).
The main stream media has a tendency for fast paced news story cycles with even big stories gone in 48 hours (Lasica, 2003). Blogging allows for slower reflection, analysis and discussion of stories with important angles revisited over again. Independent journalists such as Andrew Sullivan and Doc Searls state the weblogs afford greater credibility and authority in the eyes of readers. The perception that journalism equals accuracy is changing, with the emphasis shifting towards integrity, passion and genuineness. Lasica (2003) states weblogs and a commitment to open dialogue instill trust in the relationship between news media and audience. Blogging is repersonalizing the relationship between journalists and their audience. Blogging has allowed for journalism to become a process ans not a static product. Blogging has allowed the fostering of community where audiences let go of the role of passive audiences and become empowered and interactive.
Gillmore (2003) argues that blogging has allowed a decentralization of the journalistic process. New technology and innovative ideas are changing the nature of journalism in the new century. This new form that allows audience interaction has created exciting possibilities for those consumers, unsatisfied with today’s product and newsmakers. This is well illustrated by the reporting during the Iraqi war.
Christopher Albritton, and other independent journalists, went to Iraq to do their own coverage of the war via weblogs. This experimental form of transaction journalism is a way in which weblogs are helping to expand the boundaries of journalism. Albritton, a former reporter for The Associated Press, asked his Weblog readers to finance a trip to Iraq at the outbreak of hostilities there. Some 320 people donated more than $14,000 and helped him launch Back-to-Iraq.com (Lasica, 2003).
Weblogs are restoring trust in the relationship between audiences and the media. As partipatory media, they empower and enable audiences to participate actively in the media dialogue around them (Blood, 2003). She argues that in today’s society we are pummeled with data and with spaces an time in which it reflect, audiences will be left only with their reactions. Weblogs transform writers to readers and audiences to public, consumer to creator.
“Weblogs may not be the panacea to a media-saturated culture, but they may be one antidote� - Rebecca Blood, 2002.
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