It’s easy to say that what we hear and believe is the truth, especially if it comes from television or newspapers. Why wouldn’t we believe what a award winning journalist of the New York Times has to say about the war in
Iraq, or other issues that these reporters talk about so diligently. We take what they write to heart and believe what they say, then go ahead and pass them off as our thoughts and feelings to our friends or teachers. But what is really is going happening on the outside world, isn’t necessarily being told in your local or national newspaper. After reading Matheson’s article on weblog’s and online journalism, I came to the conclusion that what reporters write in a newspaper and what they post on their weblog can be completely different and contradicting. Many reporters write what they do because they have to adhere to certain guidelines, but it does not necessarily display their true feelings.
“A number of prominent news-related weblogs are kept by professional journalists and a key discourse in their understanding of ‘blogging’ appears to be that of expressing experiences which find no outlet in conventional reporting (Matheson, 451).” It seems to be that many professional journalists have their own blogs to write opinion pieces, add hyperlinks or photos to a page, and their views they express in their newspapers or on television, differ slightly from what they really believe. One can only assume that this happens because of restrictions put on them and what they can say in a newspaper. “The implications of such reorientations of the way in which knowledge is constructed between journalist and user extend beyond weblogs and indeed beyond online journalism. A number of senior journalists have argued that too many readers are dissatisfied with the way in which the news makes claims to knowledge (Matheson, 456).”
“Online journalism is regarded by many commentators as a site where outmoded and unsatisfactory news reporting traditions might be revised and renewed (Matheson, 443-444).” It seems as though a new day and age is coming where you can find more reliable news on people’s personal weblog’s than you can on news websites. Now this may not be the truth, but it seems as though reporters and journalists like letting their views heard on their personal weblog’s more so than in their articles they write in their papers.
Online weblogging has come a long way, and continues to expand and grow each day, where more and more people are finding their way onto their own personal weblog. But is it just a matter of time before people begin to find their way to weblogs rather than news websites to find out what is happening in this world? What is more reliable, the truth and opinions of people, or a well known news site? The question remains unanswered and it becomes and ever growing problem for news sites
Works Cited
Matheson, D. (2004). Weblogs and the epistemology of the news: some trends in online journalism. New Media and Society, 6(4). 443-468.
