Lots and lots and lots and lots of crap
Written by duckrabbitgets written about how inaccurate bloggers are, compared to ‘proper journalists.’ That somehow the world of blogging (if such a world existed) is a cess-pit of slander and innuendo. It’s the kind of rubbish people throw at bloggers when they are losing the argument.
Journalism is riddled with inaccuracy. In the UK one recent(ish) study claimed that trust in UK broadsheet journalism is down to just 22 percent. Hardly something to put on your banner!
The truth is that increasingly the mainstream media are turning to social media, citizen journalism and blogs as the sources of their stories. Why? Because they are a hell of a lot more interesting then the press releases pumped out by PR companies that studies have shown make up a huge amount of the stuff we read in newspapers.
I am someone who works both in social media and mainstream media.
I am not long back from recording a documentary in Lebanon about the estimated 17000 people who were kidnapped during the civil war, and never seen again. The documentary will be heard on the BBC by millions of people. It’s an important story. But the only reason why I am doing that story is because I came across the photographer Dalia Khamissy on Joerg Colberg’s blog, Conscientious. Joerg himself ‘discovered’ Dalia’s work on another blog, The Black Snapper (Now BITE Magazine). So no The Black Snapper, no Conscientious, no documentary. It’s as simple as that.
Most bloggers I know care deeply about the content they write. It’s personal. Their blogs are an extension of who they are; the things that they care about. Passionately. And when they get things wrong, they sometimes go to incredible lengths to put it right.
Just check out this post on Dodge and Burn to see what I mean. Would a newspaper, or station have bothered? Bollocks.
Author — duckrabbit
duckrabbit is a production company formed by radio producer/journalist Benjamin Chesterton and photographer David White. We specialize in digital storytelling.
Discussion (6 Comments)
One constantly reads how mainstream media excels at in-depth investigative reporting, and yet, that is certainly no longer the case, at least in this country. Little, can do Democracy Now showcases more investigative reporting (on topics seldom mentioned and purposely ignored) than all mass media combined in the US of A. As for mass media accuracy as opposed to blogs:
http://ceasespin.org/ceasespin_blog/ceasespin_blogger_files/fox_news_gets_okay_to_misinform_public.html
Duck, for the record, check back the source from Joerg’s previous post (http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2010/03/dalia_khamissy/), it traces back to Elie Domit and his gallery The Empty Quarter in Dubai
Thanks for pointing this out Diederik (I will make an amendment).
For the record that wasn’t the post of Joerg’s I read … it was this one:
http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/extended/archives/a_conversation_with_dalia_khamissy/
Correct, his second post does not link back to his first, it simply says “earlier this year,” but it was coming from Elie originally..
Post amended
Benjamin keep up your compelling writing.
Dalia thank you for your work. I am quoting Elie Domit: “When I first saw Dalia Khamissy’s series Abandoned Spaces I was very touched by her quiet yet impelling approach to documenting what ruin the violence of war brings to the homes of ordinary people.”
Let us not forget.
Margo de Beijer