Antony Loewenstein demonstrates the positives of blogging in his article “Bloggers of the world, unite” from Sydney Morning Herald published on the January 20, 2007. Loewenstein focuses on the deadly conflict between Israel and Lebanon. He quotes an Israeli blogger saying his thanks to the blogosphere, “we came to realise how alike we were culturally, as secularised, westernised residents of Beirut and Tel Aviv”. Proving that even though Governments whom are forbidding their civilians from interacting with the ‘enemy’ they find a common level.
Blogs allow common people to voice an “independent opinion and regularly incur the [rage] of government censors.
Blogging in Western countries has become very popular and almost second nature. The freedoms to speak your mind on issues that concern the blogger are encouraged.
This medium of the media helps us as recipients to interact with people around the world in finding an answer to what makes every one tick.
However i agree with Loewenstein in saying that some blogs try and be journalist without any credentials, lacking bias or factual and primary evidence. Though I stay true to what I believe, that you as a citizen are without a doubt allowed to voice your opinion, though in saying this we cannot stem from that what we officially call news.
“Bloggers of the world, unite” (Loewenstein 2007)
Nice, this post made made me reflect a lot on the value of citizen journalism and impartiality, as well as the importance to differentiate opinion from news. Too often I find myself forgetting that although a citizen journalist can be a rogue bearer of truth, he can also be a biased, misinformed source doing his 'job' poorly or only to label his opinions as news. After all, as a blogger he carries far less responsibility than a professional journalist who must respond of his/her mistakes if he does a poor research or is outed as a biased unreliable source. It is always important to keep a balance between news sources.
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