“A web of ‘citizen journalists’ cannot replace newspapers.” suggested an opinion piece in the Age today.
Without hard edged/nosed well trained journalists, says the author, no one would have learned of Watergate, and us plebs would not have known what to make of Julian Assange’s leaks. While people are right to suggest that some parts of the media [emphasis is mine] squander the public’s goodwill with a focus on the fatuous, and on trivia.
Blogs have their limitations as well, though, and we must be careful not to turn our backs on the serious journalists who put in the shoe leather [i.e. not the boot] and actually speaking with pollies, police and others.
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Enough about that opinion, let’s talk about us. Novice that I am, I have formed some views about what blogging can/might mean to the good citizens of Blogonia.
Possibilities include
- forming friendships one can value;
- learning interesting stuffs about all sorts of interesting stuffs;
- armchair travel;
- inspiration;
- NO canned laughter [had to put that in… Mrs Bucket is doing her thing in the next room];
- lots of clever and witty exchanges;
- getting away with typos;
- reely reely larfing;
- genuine exchanges of ideas without parliamentary ‘question-time’-type, puerile, play-yard point-scoring;
- having a whinge with people who might sometimes agree with us [me].
At least bloggers get to talk about/hear about important things the press doesn’t have time for… the stuff that’s important to the little people… like a young man expelled from a local state school because he is too disruptive in class and, yes, we know he has Aspergers, but we can’t get an aide for him because he is “not disabled enough”.
As for asking pollies the hard questions – puhleeze!
If a whole generation are growing up antipathetic to democracy, it’s no surprise.
I don’t blame the press for the inane 30 second sound-bite BS pollies serve up, I blame the pollies. And if the press can’t get anything better out of them, well, it’s not just a matter of whether we get the press we deserve, but one of whether we get the government we deserve ‘n’ all.
PS the opinion piece to which I refer was written by a former Labor political speechmaker. Go figure.
Well said *applauding*
ReplyDeleteI wish the damn govt would remember they are employed to work for us, not the other way around.
And I suspect if slippergate, thomsongate, insulationgate and all the other rubbish can't have any impact, the author of that article has an inflated sense of what 'serious' journalism contributes to democracy?
DeleteI like your list of blogging joys. I think I'm a perfect illustration of the getting away with typos thing....
ReplyDeleteDina, yu might make typos, but I leave out words that change the meaning.. yet you still come back, god bless you. :)
DeleteWhen I first began blogging, a little over a year ago, I did it to keep from becoming too lonely in my new place. Now, I cannot imagine not having my fellow bloggers around each day. This sounds bad but I think I could be happy with only virtual people in my life. It's become a way of life for now anyway.
ReplyDeleteI've given up on politics.
Rubye, I don't think there's anything bad about having mostly virtual people in your life. Why, some of us are even virtuous.
DeleteAnd in all honesty, many of us can be a little socially isolated. If I had to go out to meet people I would also have to face the fact that my pyjamas are getting tight. Where would be the fun in that?
FC, lately I have prone to typing can when I mean can't. That rather changes meaning. One thing I have noticed about blogging is that you are inclined to gather readers of a similar political persuasion and with similar ideas to yourself. Hardly surprising I guess. All of good things you suggest are quite true. It is very educational.
ReplyDeleteOne aspect I never thought about in early days but now take seriously, is self censorship. You do have to self censor. You just can't go off a wild rant about a specific religion when you know you have mutual readers of that religion. The same goes for dissing certain areas of Melbourne. My post about working/non working mothers remains in draft for editing so as to be reasonable.
The old days were more fun when I had no readers!
So, I'm still having fun, and you have to censor yourself. Like calls to like, and I live in Frankston.
DeleteYou're actually quite a diplomatic blogger, and your posts are interesting and varied. Diss away!
I like the blogging list - all apply and are the reasons I read blogs. The media here is so freakin biased and often just wrong (and frankly it is always "sensationalizing" so much - mostly to the negative, seldom positive) that I just don't want to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteMT, I'm increasingly convinced that the press is utterly irrelevant to the average person. The only difference between 16th Century Europe and the West today is that if we want to hand out pamphlets expressing an opinion, we first need a permit. Long live the net!
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