Many people think the internet has plagued news stations and newspaper companies for a while now. It seems as If the use and need of journalism degrees are coming to an end. Although many believe this argument, an article on thoughtco.com says otherwise. The article is entitled “Why bloggers can’t replace the work of professional Journalists”. The article speaks of when bloggers first appearing, stating that it seemed as if bloggers would replace traditional media outlets. The concept of being a blogger seemed to spread widely and before you knew it there were thousands of them spread across the internet. This article is written by Tony Rogers. He takes away the notion of bloggers affecting journalists negatively and explains how they can actually “supplement the work of professional reporters”. He also speaks on how most bloggers actually seem to reflect on new reports than to come up with it themselves. So it seems as if most bloggers focus on giving their opinion rather than coming up with news reports themselves. The writer goes on to say “Expressing one’s opinion is very different from doing objective news reporting”. Another and one of the most reasonable explanations as to why reporters aren’t getting their jobs taken by bloggers is because some reporters are “experts” at topics they choose to write about. While most bloggers are amateurs. The concept of blogging supplements professional journalists because of the paperless effect the internet has. Many new companies have decided to go paperless and build a website. According to the article some journalists turn to blogs to get a bit more insight on some concepts, as well to writing some themselves on their off time.

Although blogging has found various ways to gain acknowledgment, and article claims that it is nearly impossible to rise to the top, even if you have reliable and great content unless you are somehow connected to a bigger source or large company. This article is posted on The Atlantic website and is entitled “The Rise Of The Blogger”. The writer speaks of how the more acknowledgment and popularity blogs have become, the more cash that will flow in. It has also become normal that mass media outlet companies have become owners of some of the most well known blogsites. These owners range from CNN to ABC and Aol. Bloggers have went from single self creators to a new company up and coming company.

Before reading these articles I actually did think blogging could replace real news. I thought that because in this day in age a lot of people turn to social media for information before actually turning on the news or searching a real news site such as Pix11 or News 12. I know that when somebody tells me about news that I never heard of before the first thing I do is either hashtag the subject on twitter to see if that is what everyone is talking about or I go straight to Instagram to find the popular blog pages to see if they reported on it.

After reading the article I don’t know what to think. My mind slightly changed, because in the article they bring up a lot of good points about why blogging can’t replace real news. Some of the points that they gave were that bloggers don’t produce news stories on their own, they comment on what is already out there. Whereas professional journalist actually go out to the communities that they cover. They also say that bloggers giving out their opinion won’t satisfy the public hunger for factual information. I never really thought about the people that don’t have social media or even the older people who don’t know how to use social media. For some people the only way they get information about what is going on in the world is by turning on the TV or radio. So maybe blogging really can’t replace real news. One thing for sure is blogging is definitely becoming more popular.

Another very interesting thing that was mentioned is the word ‘microblogging” prior to reading the article “Why we Twitter” I have never heard of that word. I actually do have a twitter, but I never knew that me just tweeting a few tweets every day would be considered microblogging. Microblogging is a little more convenient because it fulfills a need for an even faster mode of communication.  Although microblogging is pretty popular, I know for sure that bloggers have a better chance at replacing journalist than micro bloggers do.

Social media has had an extreme and radical impact on society over the last decade. Some of the largest and most impactful social media sites are twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. One of the biggest impacts social media has been a huge part of is fake news. The article “Who Will Take Responsibility For Facebook” on Wired, speaks of how seriously fake news and personas can be taken on social media sites. The article speaks of how it played a great part in elections in the United States, which is insane if you’d ask me. The article doesn’t speak too highly of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. The writer states how the well-known site has been a “Clearing house for propaganda, fake news, and fraud accounts. More serious still: Facebook may not just have been vulnerable to information warfare; it may have been complicit”. The President even reached out to him trying to plead for some sort of understanding to what wrongdoings and exploitations could be fulfilled through Facebook. Unfortunately, it seemed like Mark Zuckerberg could care less.

Although Facebook is one of the largest and well known social media sites, another site that has a plethora of uses and members is Youtube. Youtube is thoroughly spoken about in an article on Henry Jenkins entitled, “Taking The You out of YouTube”. The writer speaks of the “interesting” buyout of Youtube by Google. He then takes into account two written responses. One of those responses is by John McMurria, a professor from DePaul University at the time. The professor speaks about the reaction the Youtube community had to the purchase. He went on to write about how some reactions ranged from comment and videos thanking the creators of youtube for their visionary skills and others scared that Google would “destroy” youtube. Just like Facebook, Youtube is mocked a bit for some negative impacts the writer chooses to speak about. The main one is the lack of diversity in the most popular videos.

It seems all social media has had a plethora of impacts on society and the entire world. The article on New York Times, entitled “The web means the end of forgetting”, speaks of the impact social media has on memories people have. It seems people don’t have to rely on physical photos or scrapbooks anymore to look back at memories because you can simply upload videos and photos of the great times you’ve experienced now. It seems as if memories are becoming more of an internet thing than a mental one.

Blogging has been around since the early to mid 2000s, but has only recently become more of an “institutionalized” medium on the rise. As “Why Bloggers Can’t Replace the Work of Journalists” states, blogging is a form of citizen journalism, which essentially gives anybody a platform to discuss, post, and curate whatever they want. It is vastly different from professional journalism because journalists produce news stories and content on a global platform such as television and reporting. Bloggers just tend to comment on news stories that are already out there with a subjective approach, while journalists state facts and are more objective. Blogs can give anyone a voice, but they are also a dime a dozen because everyone is competing for a chance to have an established, successful blog. Newer bloggers are trying to latch onto bigger corporations such as CNN in order to have a recognizable online presence.

While I don’t think blogging will replace traditional news outlets such as reporting/journalism, I do think that it will eventually replace print media such as newspapers. People would rather read the news through social media, where they are able to have the quickest and newest information at the tips of their fingers. Blogs also offer insight to events, people, places, things, etc. It is an amateur perspective but audiences can decipher whether or not they want to follow a blog or a news story first. People also have shorter attention spans so they want to get to the details immediately. As blogs become more corporate, they will eventually become more reliable sources, as stated in “The Rise of the Professional Blogger”. Newspapers use fewer reporters and more blogs in order to have sufficient content for their stories.

As time goes on, I think blogging and reporting/traditional journalism will be able to exist side by side as reliable mediums in the world of media. One simply won’t replace the other just because they are different. Instead, I see them as two sources that could equally provide information to the general public.

Blogging and traditional news were always seen as two different types of sources where you got your info from. Blogging was seen as more of a way to get your gossip or a different opinion of actual news where as traditional news is what is actually occurring in the world. According to the first article ” Can Bloggers Replace Journalist”, they talk about how bloggers are “seen at people who sit at home all day on their computers just commenting on real news stories” and its mainly based on opinion. A lot of the blogs we see are just a repeat of news stories mixed in with gossip and opinion. Some people believe that bloggers and journalist are the same. But in actuality, they’re really not. Journalist go to the stories and figure out what is really going on to give us the people and society a real story and insight into what is occurring in the world. Bloggers usually feed off of these news post or stories and put their own spin on it. They twist words or put what they believe is really happening in their stories. A lot of famous bloggers are not around anymore according to the article “The Rise of the Professional Bloggers”.  A lot of bloggers went from traditional loggers to writing for actual big companies. They have now become journalists for these companies and have become professional journalist bringing us traditional news. The article “Why we Twitter” talks about how people only go on twitter to blog about what is going on in their lives or to see what is happening in other people’s lives. It a way for us to kind of keep in touch with everyone and keep track of what is happening with society. Blogging is now just away to let people know what we are doing and traditional news gives us the info we need.

From reading the articles it informed me on how much blogging expanded. I never knew how it was taking over journalism itself. One thing I do know is that blogging has been a big aspect in newspapers not selling. This is when platforms such as NY Times and The Washington post have become online as well as paper.

Most people would think of blogging like tumblr or personal blogs where you write your own stories and experiences. There are bloggers that are journalist and they do go above and beyond to find the story and research about it. When it comes to blogging I feel like it is more free and you can choose to be biased or not.

In other words, I do not agree with Tony Rogers argument about how bloggers can’t replace Journalists. Reasons why is because bloggers are journalist in a way and in modern times I feel as if anyone can be a journalist. With all the different social media platforms everyone can put content out there. When it comes to newspapers and journalist who are paid to put content out there. I do agree that journalist in those platforms are different because what they put out there is valid information. Although sometimes it could not be true.

In this day in age, social media and blog cites are the fastest ways people in society receive their daily news. Blogging seems to grasp more attention and informs more people about any news going on in the world. This would be due to bloggers not only just informing people of society about news but also including their personal opinion on the matter which could be intriguing to the readers. However, blogging and reporting as a journalist are two different things to where they both can be useful to society without people having to think that one should be replaced by the other. Agreeing with Tony Rogers in his article, Journalist are the ones who produce the new stories as where bloggers repost stories with commentary. This doesn’t mean that bloggers don’t have a full purpose in reporting news because in fact, bloggers are helpful when it comes to bringing light to certain news events. While Journalist are the ones to go after a story, bloggers are on the internet where most of people in society spend a lot of their time on, letting people know whats is going on, giving the facts and the attention grabber would be what the blogger themselves think of the issue. Everyone likes some gossip or a public figure who is not afraid to speak their minds about important things happening. Good bloggers provide just that and news. So, journalist can not be fully replaced by bloggers. They get and report the news, giving raw facts about any current events. Bloggers repost the story to make it more interesting to those who are into politics and to those that want to know whats going on in a summary form getting straight to the point. This in which ties back to the third article on why we use twitter and the explanation of micro-blogging. Twitter is a  good resource for brief updates on current events but are not always resourceful for knowing all the facts about an event because of all of these opinions being thrown around, mistaking an opinion for  a fact. However, links to the actual news stories are constantly upload as well.

Joseph Singh

February 15, 2018

MCS-244 XH81

Jonah Brucker-Cohen

Weekly Post #2 “Blogging Vs Traditional News Reporting

After reading “The Rise Of Professional Bloggers”  I have come to the realization that yes blogging lets the “little” guy have a voice ,but a lot of the blogs are run by big companies. For example the article states how 27 of the top 100 blog sites are run by AOL which already is a huge news/email and website platform. So that makes me think are they really blogging  about what they want or is it just being filtered by the big companies who “own” the blogs.  Furthermore, the age of technology aided everyone amateur or professional to become a reporter of some sort. Whether they are reviewing something, talking about their everyday lives or giving their opinion on current news, it has become very easy for them to release content and gain a following. As popularity gained with blogging its becoming a norm and more of a way to get money and release content that “the man” wants released.

Blogging is good when it comes to commenting on already published news reports or when it comes to giving your stand point in certain topics, like elections for example. But i highly doubt that blogs could ever replace news because their validity.  News reporters get out there and actually find out what the scoop is, where as most bloggers wait at home until there is something worth commenting on and give a very arguable standpoint on a situation ad information that has already been published.

If you ask me, i feel like blogging and news reporting are not going to replace one another. They both deserve there own levels of respect. Blogging takes time, you have to develop an audience and you actually have to have an opinion worth reading about to get a following, where as news, is very important because the have an obligation to find out the facts and details. And bring you, the people current events that are non opinionated and unbiased; stories to keep you up to date on whats going on in your city, state, or in the  world.