blogging

Murdoch: Would Serve Powerful If Bloggers, Bloviators Replace Journalists

22 October, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

Rupert Murdoch on justifying journalism:

Now, it would certainly serve the interests of the powerful if professional journalists were muted – or replaced as navigators in our society by bloggers and bloviators. Bloggers can have a social role – but that role is very different to that of the professional seeking to uncover facts, however uncomfortable.

I guess he does not consider his own journalists to be "professional" then, since they prop up his own political and business interests on a regular basis…

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Marr on bloggers: inadequate, pimpled, single, seedy, abusive ranters

11 October, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

Andrew Marr's diatribe at the Cheltenham Literature Festival:

Most citizen journalism strikes me as nothing to do with journalism at all.

A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting. They are very angry people.

OK – the country is full of very angry people. Many of us are angry people at times. Some of us are angry and drunk. But the so-called citizen journalism is the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night.

It is fantastic at times but it is not going to replace journalism…

Most of the blogging is too angry and too abusive. It is vituperative. Terrible things are said on line because they are anonymous. People say things on line that they wouldn't dream of saying in person.

Ouch! Talk about missing the point… scarily one-sided!

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Welcome to the fifth estate

22 June, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

Laurie Penny:

Bloggers aren’t out to take away the jobs of highly-paid columnists: we’re more ambitious than that. We’re out for a complete revolution in the way media and politics are done. While the media establishment guards its borders with paranoid rigour, snobbishly distinguishing between “bloggers” and “journalists”, people from the internet have already infiltrated the mainstream.

[…]

One thing, however, is certain: journalism is changing forever. The notion of political commentary as a few-to-many exercise, produced by highly-paid elites and policed by big business, has been shattered beyond repair.

The internet is a many-to-many medium, and those who write and comment here are not media insiders, nor are we the mob. We are something altogether new. We are the fifth estate, and we are forging a path through the miasma of technological change towards more a honest, democratic model of commentary – alongside a lot of porn and some pictures of amusing cats.

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Al Jazeera will help persecuted bloggers, run their stories

24 May, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

Gulf Times (Doha):

“On the first day of the Fifth Annual Al Jazeera Forum yesterday, Wadah Khanfar, Director General of the network, announced ‘The Al Jazeera Initiative for Internet Freedom’, outlining four plans to provide information to the widest possible audience while promoting high standards in online journalism. … As part of the initiative, Khanfar also announced a programme aimed at supporting the rights of online journalists, bloggers, and other individuals who write and report online. ‘There are too many cases of bloggers being persecuted for telling the truth or for voicing their opinions,’ said Khanfar. … The programme will be part of the Network’s Public Liberties and Human Rights Desk and will allow individuals who have faced difficulties to bring their case to the attention of Al Jazeera. The Network will run the stories as part of Al Jazeera’s television broadcast.”

Courtesy of Kim Andrew Elliott.

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Del.ici.us tags: aljazeera bloggers blogging citizenjournalism wadahkhanfar freedom

Bloggers views: Was this the internet election? – BBC News

13 May, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

Here, bloggers who supported various political parties during the election consider what their role was in the campaign, their relationship with the parties and what the future holds for them."

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Del.ici.us tags: bbc election2010 blogging