Blogporters

Sure, the Internet provides a place for me to shop without paying taxes or shelling out extra money to pay the salary of the mindless clerk who scans my items and puts them in a bag. If I were in the business of predictions, I imagine there would be a lot less storefronts here in a couple decades. But, when I go out looking for information, I don't think I am gullible enough to believe everything Joe Blogger has to say. Yet bloggers do have a valid position in the news industry.

THe role of the traditional reporter is getting flushed away.
Photo:Sarah Neff

I can't say if bloggers will completely replace traditional reporters. I do know that bloggers provide a check and balance system for reporters. Bloggers have the forum to call bullshit. But reporters and traditional media have the benefit of transparency on their sides. Reporters put their names and reputations on the line when they present the news. Of course, bloggers could have probably told us there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, whereas reporters took the bait from Washington and reported what was being said, even though it was false.

I will never fully trust that all bloggers are who they say they are. But bloggers and reporters need each other. It is a new world where there is competition for the news and free speech is at its height. This is the beauty of the free market our country is based on. But, if traditional reporters want to keep up, they are going to have to move with the times and innovate ways to present the news that has the spice of a blog but the meat of cold hard facts. This meshing of media is a metaphor to what is happening everywhere else that the Internet touches.