I just saw the movie “Good Night, and Good Luck” about Edward Murrow and CBS challenging Senator McCarthy in the fifties. Great movie, highly recommended. But here is the part that relates to using a blog and the Internet: what used to take a crew of 30 to 50 people- and huge amounts of money to produce- a 30 minute national, live, news broadcast- can now be done for next to nothing, go global, allow interaction globally, and by one person- on a blog.
The balance of power is shifting quickly from the few to the many- so the question becomes who will be the most powerful providers? Answer: Those with the best content.
As you watch the movie- you become aware of another issue- fact checking and bias. Since the fifties, journalism has changed dramatically- with the worries of being unbiased being pushed aside in the pursuit for the most eyeballs. Even the separation between the business and the editorial sides of the business has been breached- with newspapers now willing to pander for ad space and advertisers boycotts actually making papers change direction. Blogs can and will change the way we access information- the question will be, once the big institutions falter, how will we be able to check fact from fiction? We’ve already seen how Internet chain mail can go on for years – even if it is far from factual (see snopes.com for the best in fact checking).
If there is one thing a blogosopher can do to raise their contribution to the community to whom they serve- it’s stay on the topic you know and check your facts.
In the meantime- go see “Good Night, and Good Luck.”