Blogging news stories as they unfold is one of the most
exciting and controversial applications of technology
that bloggers have discovered. One thing that makes the
blogosphere so active is the fact that it is possible to
update a blog instantaneously, so the news on blogs
tend to be more current than the news in the newspaper, or
on television. Contrary to the posts by these other
media, news that appears on blogs is not
travel through a series of editors and managers
before it reaches the public eye. This has a number
benefits, and a number of obvious disadvantages.
One of the most notable cases of news hitting a blog
before appearing in other media took place in July 2005
when terrorism hit London. If passengers were
evacuated from a subway car near an explosion, a
man multiple photo s took the stage with his
mobile phone, and within one hour these images were
Posted online. First-person accounts of the disaster
began appearing on blogs soon after these photo s
appeared, and people around the world learned about
the events in London by reading the words and seeing
photo s posted by bloggers.
The fact that these stories and images were distributed
directly by individuals operating without the added
filter of a reporter helped to make the crisis feel very
immediate to people across the globe. When it comes to
blogging, news often appears in a very personal context.
This has the potential to usher in an exciting
new era of reporting, which takes a , New Journalism
to a logical next step by introducing the power to shape
how the news is written and read directly into the hands
the public.
Many bloggers and commentators who are cultural
champions of the weblog movement feel that this
growing trend of people getting their news
of blogs is a good thing because it makes the flow of
information more democratic. The decentralization of
control of news, blogs, more voices to enter
area of debate about important current events.
However, many people are adamantly opposed to the
using blogs as news outlets, and there are numerous
good arguments on this side of the debate. Unlike
newspapers or television stations, few blogs have fact-
checkers, and there is little attention paid to journalistic
accountability on many blogs. This can lead to the quick
dissemination of misinformation, and more than a lie
have the blogosphere by storm. Questions
about whether blogging news as it happens is ethical or
not very complicated, but no matter where you stand
on the subject of current events blogs you are almost certainly
to agree that this movement has the potential to
changing the way modern people get their news.
