|
"Citizen Journalism"
4 Comments - Show Original Blog
It's all a work in progress. I don't know of any outlets that can be counted on by themselves, but several with ideas bouncing around can open a lot of minds. Stay tuned ...
Janine Gorwitz said...
A simple question: is there any place where people can rely on citizen journalism for all of their news or all the news they might need in some area?
I agree that reporters everywhere would be great, but I don't see how that can be organized and filtered. It's like a big chatroom at some point.
You're absolutely right - and a lot of this is what I meant when I tried to distinguish between "Talking" and "Barking". Language that divides is language that is more about the writer than about the reader or, more importantly, the relationship between them. It says, "Are you on my side or not?"
This definitely happens on both sides, but the Citizen Journalism movement is being defined by the Left right now. I'm make a distinction, perhaps a bit too fine, between the blog world and those who are attempting to do real reporting on their world. What's the difference? To me, it's largely about whether you take off from comments you see in the traditional press or interviews and experiences you have yourself.
We need a lot more reporting from people, IMHO. But we need them to have the guts to say, "This is what I saw" more than "This is what I think the other person meant". How does anyone know what's in someone else's heart? Statements like that can only be Barking.
Thanks for your comments. I'm trying to get at the heart of the situation and how we can get out of it. The more we all work on it, the more likely we'll find that light at the end of the dark cave.
I read "Citizen Journalism" with interest but would like to add that the conservatives must also tone it down. For the last two years I had a debate with an old friend on this very topic He accused the liberals of doing exactly what was mentioned in this blog and although there is some truth to that claim, he also kept sending me examples of opinionated pieces to support his neo-conservative, evangelical Christian beliefs.
I found those opinions, for the most part, to be 100% biased and horribly written compared to a slight liberal bias in the media. "Citizen Journalism", by its very term, means people stating personal opinions and many of those opinions are made without a logical, rational argument. Many of those opinions parrots what is heard or read on the Internet.
In many of the conservative pieces this friend sent as a means to support his beliefs, I found most of it filled with inflammatory language and hateful propaganda that had little or not substance in a journalistic sense.
Instead, the language used tended to divide further.
My wife grew up in Communist China during the Cultural Revolution under Mao. She almost died in the labor camps. She is now an American citizen and she stated correctly that what is taking place in America is like a Cultural Revolution to influence the citizens to believe one way or the other.
There is a tug of war going on in America to influence people. Much of what is said from liberals and conservatives alike if examined carefully is twisted and without merit.
There is vast middle in America that is ignored by the liberals and the conservatives as they struggle to demonize each other. In the end, the middle will quietly cast its vote and decide the course of this country regardless of the squeaky wheels on the left and right.
I trust as our founding fathers did, that the majority is smart enough over the long term to see through all the shams. Once understood, we can trust those same people to make up their minds and vote out the rascals on both extremes.
Did you know that the founder of the neo-conservatives advocates censorship. That is clearly stated on the neo-conservatives central Website. The liberals, on the other hand, keep marching in tune to politically correct language and the conservatives seem to have learned to use the same tactics to marshal their own beliefs and foster them off as the only way that we should act and live and be governed.
The Internet, if anything, offers us the ability to search out truth but finding the truth means we must carefully chart a course through a mind-field—the danger being that we might be led astray by one extreme or the other and lose what little freedom we have.
Lincoln once said, “You can fool some of the people most of the time and most of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” That same principal rules today. As long as we have our Bill of Rights, we can always come back to a proper path to maintain the freedoms that same Bill of Rights guarantees. With the Internet, cautious citizen, can not be fooled for long since it is almost impossible to censor the Internet.
|
|
