'Journalism is dead. Long live the journalist!'
That's the intro para of Malaysiakini's latest editorial, crafted by its editor, Steven Gan. He talks about Press vs. Blogs. Quote:
Yes, there has been a lot of bad blood between bloggers and journalists. It’s time to put an end this war.
The Malaysiakini editorial, like good blogs and good bloggers, give the issue a context for the readers to chew on. And here's the context Malaysiakini highlighted:
Clearly, the media landscape is being irreversibly altered. There is growing fragmentation of information. Old media no longer has a complete monopoly on the truth. To top this, those who were once spectators have now invaded the pitch and are demanding to join in the game too - giving rise to the new phenomenon of ‘citizen journalism’. [...]
There’s no doubt that bloggers have played a very important role in improving journalism. They help check bad journalism. They pinpoint mistakes and inaccuracies. They provide alternative viewpoints.
But bloggers will have to live up to the very standards they demand from journalists - in getting the facts right, in exercising similar discipline in the verification process, in not peddling hearsay as news.
The crux of the Malaysiakini editorial is the new media eco-system, a topic that Dr Jay Rosen had said many Internet years ago in Bloggers vs. Journalists is Over.
More quotes from Malaysiakini:
Would we want to live in a world where there are only bloggers and no journalists? Surely not.
After all, everyone has an opinion and many do-it-yourself journalists can really do it much better than the so-called lords of the profession. Yet most independent accounts of local and global events have come from professional journalists. It is imperative that these continue to come from them.
On the other hand, would we want to live in a world populated by only journalists and no bloggers? Again, no.
In the few cases where bloggers have helped break news, it was then often left to journalists to follow up. It is this kind of partnership which can push an opaque government to come into the clear.
Consider the case of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s ‘private’ jet. Bloggers were the first to raise the issue. But it was journalists who took it to the next level by pressing Abdullah on the matter.
It is this sort of synergistic partnership that will invariably shape our new media world.
The editorial emphasised, and re-emphasised, that bloggers, like Malaysiakini's online journalists, will have to build their credibility by staying true to their craft - and holding dear to the principles demanded by the profession.
That's exactly what Rosen mentioned in January 2005 when he attended the the Blogging, Journalism & Credibility Conference organised by Harvard Law School. That, credibility is key for both mainstream journalists and the bloggers if they want to cast influence on public opinion.
I dread to think of the so-called bloggers who often mix facts with fiction, run them in dozens of episodes, and yet failed to make a distinction between the blogger (the online writer who owns a domain name to publish his personal journal) and the commenters (blog readers, often posting behind anonymity, who respond to a particular blog topic by leaving their POVs on the readers' feedback section).
These pseudo bloggers just called 'the blogger' and 'the commenters' colossally, and naively, as bloggers. All and sundry.
That gives us real bloggers the shit. Abdullah's ministers simply generalised us as Penembak Curi who try to hide from the laws -- who aren't the same as those responsible bloggers who put up a public face.
Comments
The world is changing in the way information is being spread and mainly due to internet and bloggers,especially in Malaysia. Truth cannot be hidden any more as most educated people do not trust and accept the spin the Government and the mainstream media play for vested interests.
How do we channalise the truth and the abuses taking place to our kampong folks and those who do not and cannot access the internet and bloggers.That is the critical question to be asked,answered and implemented.
That will give our voters enough information as to how to use their votes, come the next General Elections.
Folks, ideas, please.
Posted by: ksn![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.my/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 14, 2007 12:21 PM
IMHO.
From the surface, it is Journalist vs blogger.
But what lies behind the practice of main stream media journalism make the water milkier : Government, advertisement pay master, capital provider and the editor.
Posted by: moo_t![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.my/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 14, 2007 04:06 PM