Carina's Blog

general thoughts on blogs as resources

After researching and reading some of the blogs and EU-related sites listed,there are a few things to keep in mind in respect to their use and importance for Online Journalism in general.

Apart from all I said previously about the meaning and importance of blogging as "citizen journalism" for journalism as such in my "interlude" post, it is quite obvious that blogs are biased and reflect the personal opinion of its write - due to the lack of any controlling instance censoring information and opinion.

As much of a beneficial characteristic that is,for plurality of opinions,freedom of speech,critical thought and all these wonderful things, using these sources for conventional Journalism means being cautious and aware of their bias (especially with a subject so controversial as politics). Since any journalist and online journalist does in one way or the other subscribe to the ethic of factuality and being unbiased (which is,one could argue,not possible as every guideline and imposed ethic is a bias of some sort towards information), non-mainstream sources cannot be used literally and without critical assessment.

Whilst they are useful to gather different and opposing points of view on issues, get hints on other sources of information and explore topics in-depth, one has to be aware of tinted "news-reporting" and populistic writing when adapting any issues dealt with in blogs and other non-mainstream sources.

All in all though, I consider blogs as a positive and useful contribution to the world of communication and the development of non-mainstream, diverse, user-controlled media.

posted by Carina @ 12:50 pm