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I think this could also be a watershed moment for the "war" between "real journalists" and "bloggers", where the "bloggers" have reached a tipping point where t

I think this could also be a watershed moment for the "war" between "real journalists" and "bloggers", where the "bloggers" have reached a tipping point where they are in many cases better at finding evidence than the "real journalists", especially as you're now required to do increasingly more Internet research to find evidence for something. I remember a few years ago a lot of people were worried about what would happen with journalism if the "media corporations" died. As others have said in the past what matters is the "act of journalism", which can be done by anyone, not necessarily that you have a journalist diploma and badge. We live in a time when everything is getting "democratized", i.e. "amateurs" can now do a lot of stuff only "professionals" could do in the past, and we'll see increasingly more of it and in many other industries, too. And yes, as with all democratization processes, there will be a lot of crap, especially in the beginning, but in the end you also start getting really good stuff, out of all the crap, that rises to the top, and ends up being much better than what the traditional gate-keeping "professionals" could do, and that's how you get significant progress overall, in that industry.

rayiner 13y ago
Here's the thing: bloggers can only research up to the scope of what's on the internet. And the fact is, most interesting things are not on the internet. Frequent users of the internet fall into a mode of "if it's not on Google it must not exist." But you'd be shocked by the things that aren't on Google. There will always be a place for journalists that have "centralized credibility." There is a reason Snowden leaked to Glen Greenwald instead of just putting the data up on the internet for bloggers to crawl through.
- danielweber 13y ago
  Maybe in general, but many specialist bloggers know how to look up the proper records that aren't on the Internet, or are (say) personally attending court sessions that won't end up on the week for weeks. Live blogging on court cases is fascinating.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  "Here's the thing: bloggers can only research up to the scope of what's on the internet." I think this is clearly false in terms of potential. It's probably the case that too many bloggers do limit themselves to internet research.
- kencausey 13y ago
  I hope you will agree with s/bloggers can only/bloggers often only/.

rayiner 13y ago

Here's the thing: bloggers can only research up to the scope of what's on the internet. And the fact is, most interesting things are not on the internet. Frequent users of the internet fall into a mode of "if it's not on Google it must not exist." But you'd be shocked by the things that aren't on Google. There will always be a place for journalists that have "centralized credibility." There is a reason Snowden leaked to Glen Greenwald instead of just putting the data up on the internet for bloggers to crawl through.

danielweber 13y ago
Maybe in general, but many specialist bloggers know how to look up the proper records that aren't on the Internet, or are (say) personally attending court sessions that won't end up on the week for weeks. Live blogging on court cases is fascinating.
dllthomas 13y ago
"Here's the thing: bloggers can only research up to the scope of what's on the internet." I think this is clearly false in terms of potential. It's probably the case that too many bloggers do limit themselves to internet research.
kencausey 13y ago
I hope you will agree with s/bloggers can only/bloggers often only/.