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Picking up the slack

For all their problems, news blogs fill a void

Not a day goes by when news of Sudan isn't front and center in a major newspaper or news Web site. By now, the numbers are burned into many news consumers' minds: More than 1.8 million people have been displaced from their homes in the Darfur region and an estimated 70,000 people have been killed. There are near daily reports of brutal rapes and other violent crimes. From the U.S. Congress to the African Union, everyone is debating what should be done to help the people of Sudan, who some argue are in the midst of genocide.

Just a few months ago, though, not much of this information was out there for public consumption. Few American politicians were talking about Sudan and, certainly, it wasn't a topic of conversation among average Americans. Back when Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., was arrested for protesting outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., people interested in Sudan were turning to blogs for information. Sudan: The Passion of the Present was one of the only places to find information this summer. The blog reported in mid-July that since there was low interest from mainstream news organizations, activists found themselves "more and more informed by other blogs."

Now, Sudan coverage is all over the AP wire and original reporting is being done by The New York Times and other major newspapers. But when no one was paying much attention, blogs stepped to the plate and provided a much-needed public service.

Blogging Journalists

Remember: Nothing online is private

Increasingly, journalists are buying vanity domains and setting up Web sites to display their resumes and clips (I have one, tjdegroat.com, and I agree that everyone should). It's not a big leap to go from updating a professional site to maintaining a personal blog, but some reporters have gotten into trouble for ideas they've espoused online. Hatch magazine (full disclosure: I help out with this online publication) recently published a first-person piece by a reporter who was sacked because of her blog.

"Who has never made a snide comment about their boss, their job or the day-to-day things that frustrate us?" Rachel Mosteller asks in the commentary. "Unless you're Mother Theresa, you've likely made them, at least to your family and friends. I've made these types of comments, too; but I made them on the Internet. And they cost me my job."

Plenty of writers post intimate details of their lives for all the world to see. I mentioned one blog on the class discussion board, electrolicious.com, which is full of everything from wedding photos to vents to complaints about past work projects. The writer, Ariel, generally keeps to a no-writing-about-work rule, though, and that's a very smart idea. As we all should know by now, in this google-obsessed world, very little of what we say online is private. And as employers increasingly conduct background checks and basic Internet searches on potential and current workers, there are more ways for a person's private life to screw up his or her work life. Be careful, folks.

Election Day Blogs: Love Them or Hate Them?

The Internet allows publications to publish 'round the clock, but some blogs jump the gun

The major news networks and other print publications pledged to use caution when projecting winners on Election Day. In fact, some networks seemed to drag their heels a bit when things were obviously swinging in one particular direction, but after the 2000 Florida debacle, no one wanted to pull a Dan Rather.

Professor Pavlik forwarded a story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about many major news outlets using blogs to report up-to-the-minute results of exit polls and other election data. This is a great way for newspapers, which don't have the ability to continuously update the public (like 24-hour cable channels), to stay in the game. During the 7 p.m. hour, the blog was updated 13 times.

Ironically, blogs came under intense criticism the next day. Exit-poll results from Florida and Ohio, the two most hyped battleground states, spread like wildfire on uber-popular blogs and regular Web sites such as Wonkette.com, Atrios.blogspot.com, Slate and the Drudge Report, which boasted that it receive it's highest traffic in nine and a half years. " Some of these sites cautioned readers not to make too much of the information," Wired News reports. But in an election as divisive as this one, with people on both sides so passionate about their preferred candidate, it must have been nearly impossible not to get excited over the latest results.

"I didn't have any real compunction about putting it up there," Alan Nelson, co-manager of The Command Post, told Wired News. "I didn't struggle with the decision, because I knew it was going to become a global news item within about 30 seconds. Our approach is: We post, you decide."

That's a fair statement, but some partisan bloggers may have picked certain data and overlooked contradictory information. And without analysis from election experts, readers might have put too much faith into the posts. "I think people believed them, and it's particularly the case with internet bloggers," said Kathy Frankovic, CBS News' polling director. "That's unfortunate because it sets up expectations that may or may not be met. I think it's a good exercise because it reminded people that early exit polls can be unreliable."

This is a clear-cut example of what can happen when bloggers act like journalists without taking the precuations that "real" or trained journalists would take. Obviously, seasoned pros have done the same thing in the past, but I think the stakes were higher this year. I still don't know what the answer is. I don't think regulation or mandatory ethics standards would work—or are desireable. But as more bloggers become independent journalists and the allure of scooping traditional media outlets increases, the issue will become more important.

Partisan Blogging Part Deux

Watching journalism’s every move

Some bloggers have become independent journalists, but many others are using their growing influence to attack the media.

A story in Thursday’s edition of The New York Times (reg req) discusses the tension between bloggers and journalists in relation to the presidential election. According to the story, hordes of partisan bloggers are attacking the traditional media for the biases and inaccuracies they say are commonplace in mainstream news stories. These independent Internet writers say they can serve as a check on the power of journalists, providing an alternative voice. "The traditional players, including the press, have lost some of the control or exclusive control they used to have," Jay Rosen, chairman of NYU’s journalism department and a blogger, told the newspaper.

The traditional players also have lost some of their prestige, thanks to constant attacks from widely read blogs, some of which urge their readers to call and send emails to reporters of criticized articles, according to the Times, which is no stranger to politically motivated attacks. Howard Fineman, chief political correspondent for Newsweek, is a favorite target for the people behind liberal-leaning Web site DailyKos. The site recently called Fineman a "slime" and said he "loves the G.O.P. and hates gays just like all of the press."

"Most of us now realize that this is a constant conversation, and I think that largely that part of it is good," Fineman told the newspaper. "Some of the stuff includes very personal and nasty things about people - they go after people's physical characteristics, they'll say somebody's ugly - and you just have to ignore that." But he added: "I would be lying if I didn't say it could be hurtful.”

This story didn’t give too many details about the readership of political blogs or an idea of how much influence bloggers carry, but I know several people who get the vast majority of their news from popular blogs such as instapundit.com or the aforementioned Daily Kos, two sites with strong agendas. That’s fine; it’s just like reading columns or news analyses, but it you’re not balancing that with straight news or different opinions you could wind up regurgitating some else’s ideas.

Partisan Blogging

Bloggers say what objective news outlets can't

I came across interesting stats in a recent Associated Press story about partisan blogs: "A recent Pew Internet and American Life Project found more than two million Americans have their own blog. Most have few readers but some garner thousands of hits daily as the American public becomes increasingly distrustful of mainstream media."

The story focused on the rise of bloggers commentating on the presidential election, which has "prompted a frenzy of gossip and conspiracy theories." According to the story, "Experts say much of the gossip on the Internet is as loony as supermarket tabloid stories claiming Elvis Presley lives, but that it still has a role to play in the campaign."

It's great that people are able to put their theories out there, but the danger is that readers could mistake some of these blogs for legitimate news sources. I hope there still is a decent level of skepticism among blog readers (as well as newspaper and magazine readers).

Of course, newspapers and magazines are creating their own blogs. Like editorial pages, these allow reporters to discuss topics without trying to remain objective and without worrying about space. I interned at the San Francisco Bay Guardian, an alt weekly with a decidedly liberal point of view. At alt weeklies, writers don't have to censor themselves or stay within boundaries as much as journalists at mainstream dailies, but there still are certain freedoms only available in companion blogs. The Guardian's political blog allows writers and editors (usually Steve Jones, the city editor) to expound on ideas that were left out of the print edition for whatever reason.

The Dallas Morning News has a political blog and a quick glance at it shows how different this format is from that of the newspaper. Besides letting the editorial board discuss whatever issues interest them, newspaper blogs really promote reader feedback. In a recent post, Rod Dreher, assistant editorial page editor, starts with an email from a reader and then goes off on a bit of a tangent, denouncing people who slap obnoxious, insulting bumper stickers on their cars.

Another Morning News post, by editorial writer Rodger Jones, presents a scan of major polls . Two things jumped out at me: Jones wrote, "All in field thru yesterday," showing that language is looser online. Also, a quick blurb on three polls reinforced the idea that blogs are about small bits of information. Newspaper journalists craft stories, but Americans sure do love blurbs. Small doses of easily digestible information could transform journalism more than any new technology.