Posted on 12/13/2007 1:21:17 PM PST by abb
You're beginning to get a lot more news ... from you.
It ranges from the CNN YouTube debates to political blogs to cellphone video of that sniper who opened fire at an Omaha Mall. These are all examples of so called "citizen journalism," the hot new extension of the news business where the audience becomes the reporter.
Supporters of "citizen journalism" argue it provides independent, accurate, reliable information that the traditional media don't provide. While it has its place, the reality is it really isn't journalism at all, and it opens up information flow to the strong probability of fraud and abuse. The news industry should find some way to monitor and regulate this new trend.
The premise of citizen journalism is that regular people can now collect information and pictures with video cameras and cellphones, and distribute words and images over the Internet. Advocates argue that the acts of collecting and distributing makes these people "journalists." This is like saying someone who carries a scalpel is a "citizen surgeon" or someone who can read a law book is a "citizen lawyer." Tools are merely that. Education, skill and standards are really what make people into trusted professionals. Information without journalistic standards is called gossip.
But unlike those other professions, journalism — at least in the United States — has never adopted uniform self-regulating standards. There are commonly accepted ethical principals — two source confirmation of controversial information or the balanced reporting of both sides of a story, for example, but adhering to the principals is voluntary. There is no licensing, testing, mandatory education or boards of review. Most other professions do a poor job of self-regulation, but at least they have mechanisms to regulate themselves. Journalists do not.
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(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
The author is obviously a high-class maroon. Someone ought to remind him of all the incidents of "fabricated news" that have come from "journalists"--up to and including "Rathergate".
Somehow that voluntary standard disappears when there is a chance to damage a political opponent of the journalist.
Sorry, any press report should be taken with the same grain of salt as something told to you by someone at a bar. It is up to you to determine whether the source is a professional in the field, or the drunk who is always muttering about the satellite mind control beams that President Kerry is firing at him.
Journalism schools such as mine at the University of Georgia should create mini-courses to certify citizen journalists in proper ethics and procedures, much as volunteer teachers, paramedics and sheriff's auxiliaries are trained and certified.
Remember, Constitutional rights must be limited by the government certification. You have a free press, but only the party in power determines whether you are actually the "press" or just a crackpot with a laser printer who must be arrested for saying something unpopular.
If the main stream media actually did this, there would not be any need for the public to step in and do the job they are not doing.
The fact is, everyone now knows that the main stream media can not be trusted to be honest, fair, or unbias.
The American people have "fired" them the only way they know how. They have done this by no longer watching the evening news, or by buying newspapers.
Further, they now take stories and put them on internet sites such as FreeRepublic where they can be discussed and different voices can be heard.
My mind is not made up on everything, and I have been known to change my mind if the right argument is presented. For the main stream media, there is only one point of view, and if you do not share it then there is something wrong with you.
That is not the way to win arguments or to convince others your point of view is the correct one.
There will always be a need for an organization to "gather" news, only now it is no longer a one way street.
There is now an opportunity for someone to provide raw news, that is nothing but the facts without any editorial comments within the stories. Unfortunately for the management of main stream media they think they are already doing that and can not understand why no one wants their product anymore.
Unfettered "citizen journalism" messes up the unfettered "left wing partisan journalism".
The advent of cell phones, cell phones with cameras, and digital technology makes it possible for citizens to give on the scene accounts and rapidly upload unfiltered images, thus bypassing traditional news gathering organizations. This really steams them! And by the time they DO get around to getting it reported, it is stale and events have moved beyond the incident.
ROFL!! Yeah, like there isn't any fraud or abuse in professional journalism. (*coff* Dateline:NBC's pyrotechnics *coff* Dan Rather's memos *coff*).
I had to check it for satire.
???
This article is a joke.
How about this for fraud and abuse?
Wow, that's a loaded sentence.
Or this:
My thoughts, exactly.
Scrappleface, right? Hmmm.... Nope. It’s indeed a caricature that paints itself.
Uh-huh. The guy would be horrified at the thought of the GM board being in charge of the regulation of the auto industry or Exxon writing environmental standards for the oil industry but journalists can be trusted to monitor and regulate their industry?
It'd be sweet for them, I'll grant that. The New Republic would never have been caught, Dan Rather would be celebrated as a hero "speaking truth to power" and Jason Blair would still be writing for the NY Times. For a picture of what that world would be like just recall what it used to look like - I.F. Stone and Walter Duranty.
Let's speak frankly here - journalism is, at the moment, one of the most corrupt, shameless, manipulative, arrogant, out of control, celebrity-choked travesties in any industry anywhere. I would no more trust its luminaries to guard my flow of information than I would trust Oprah to guard my Twinkie stash. Some things are too stupid to even consider.
Rathergate, Bilal Hussein, "Pally"wood, Lebanon, Beauchamp at TNR, Glass at TNR, fake Pulitzer at the Post, all the way back to "I have seen the future, and it works!", etc., etc.
Thanks, I haven't laughed so hard for long a time.
Nothing opens up the possibility of fraud and abuse so much as a monopoly on news by a herd of uneducated, group-think leftists.
Read: “Only WE are qualified to tell you what you should believe.”
What a pompous self important elitist jerk. He and all of us would be better off if he would just STFU.
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