First of all, the internet is an amazing tool. Anyone can be anyone they want to be by using multiple site, such as Facebook, MySpace, SecondLife Twitter, but besides having a second persona, anyone can become a journalist. More often than not, people are acting as journalists when they aren't even aware that is what they're doing.
For instance, with tools like Facebook and Myspace young people are turning into journalists (or editorial writes to say the least). They're publishing their thoughts and opinions, sharing photos and updating others, while also using HTML. Unfortunately, most of the users have never used HTML before and probably don't even know what it is (Briggs, p. 23). It's saddening because HTML comes in handy in so many situations, and allows the user to customize and troubleshoot their own web site (of profile page on things like MySpace) in a way that's not otherwise possible. I found it interesting that just 15 years ago every web site was all created by HTML. Personally I don't have a lot of experience with this, but I have learned that it is a very time consuming process when building an entire web site off of it. I think that users of MySpace and FB should familiarize themselves somewhat with the tool since it would allow them to personalize their profile in an original way that someone else on the web might not have.
So while all of these people are using social networking sites as a form of journalism, others are using blogs to get their opinions out into the World Wide Web. Blogs are an essential form of news organization as well as a cornerstone for news coverage, if done properly of course. Blogs can also help cover a beat and build a community of loyal readers who can contribute to that coverage through comments (Briggs, p. 41). However, blogs can vary from influential to boring, informative or completely inaccurate, but either way is a different way for everyone to get their chance at being published. Anyone can do it from anywhere and engage an audience no mattere where or what they are doing. One thing I found particularly interesting was a term called "moblog". This is when a person blogs from their mobile device. I think this is very important to technology today because it seems like everyone has an iPhone or Blackberry. These devices also come in handy when a user wants to upload videos that they might not want to post to their FB or Twitter. These smart phones even allow a user to upload videos to YouTube (Grant, p. 117)).
Another topic I found interesting was microblogging, which is blogging using Twitter and the like. Twitter only allows users to share all the information they can (per post) in 140 characters or less. Although this may cut down on grammar and spelling, it lets the user get their point across quickly and efficiently to their readers. The publisher is able to provide readers with a short link to other topics and news and also share photos via TwitPic. Facebook status's and LinkedIn are also ways that a person can share their feelings in a short manner. Although FB doesn't restrict a user to a certain amount of characters, it seems to me that almost everyone on FB knows to keep their status updates to short, quick and blunt posts. Through status's and Twitter updates we are allowed to catch up quickly with others, which especially comes in handy when we are short on time or catching up with an old friend. One comment made in the Briggs book is that a lot of news leads come from Twitter (Briggs, p. 105).
There's amazing new things happening with technology almost every day, and there are many different ways for a person to get their thoughts and opinions on the web. Although not always accurate, these tools come in handy when wanting to share links or short ideas with others, catching up with old friends and even finding news leads.
I liked your point about news leads coming from Twitter. Average people can give the "what" and the professional journalists can follow up with the "why". I wonder what people do when they see something interesting that a person Tweets. Lets say they have some breaking news that interests the reader. Does the reader then go to a "news source" and see what further information there is or do they usually ask the person that posted the comment? I would hope that they would get as many perspectives as possible because of the sometimes less than reputable posts (as you discussed).
ReplyDeleteHTML is fun. When I first learned the basics and created a data table, for example, I was quite thrilled. Being able to create something that elaborate out of a few typed commands is fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI believe at one time that Facebook did actually have a limit on the number of characters you could use in the status. That's interesting that they changed it to whatever you want, but agree with you on the notion that people just know, for the most part, to keep it short and sweet.
ReplyDeleteI like how microblogging gives you that 140 character max barrier. I do agree it helps people get to the point. It in a way keeps out a lot of useless information that we don't need to hear about. Much like blogs, many are useless information and boring but many are also full of good material that others can read and learn from. So in a way people are journalists using such things like Twitter and blogs, and even some news sources are using them to find a story to use or keep up on a current issue.
Very interesting. Love your posts!
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